


So Maybe We Finally See Each Other In Lights That Burn

by The_Inebriated_Literary_Virtuoso



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alive Bianca, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst and Humor, Declarations Of Love, F/F, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fallen Star!Nico, Falling In Love, First Kiss, First Meetings, Friendship/Love, Gen, Humor, Implied Sexual Content, Love Confessions, Love at First Sight, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Minor Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Mutual Pining, Nico & Reyna Friendship, Not Actually Unrequited Love, One Night Stands, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Partying, Prince Nico, Reyna is always gay and no one can tell me otherwise, Romance, Same-Sex Marriage, Soul Bond, Tumblr Prompt, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-23
Updated: 2016-07-05
Packaged: 2018-04-23 01:51:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 50
Words: 233,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4858640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Inebriated_Literary_Virtuoso/pseuds/The_Inebriated_Literary_Virtuoso
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An entire series of Jasico AUs based on tumblr prompts, headcanons, and AU posts! Still accepting submissions and anything else for the authors to write!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Loving You With The Lights Off

_**“we casually hook up at parties sometimes but this time you got so drunk you couldn’t make it all the way back to your dorm so i let you crash in my room because it was closer and it turns out you’re really cute when you wake up in the morning, fuck”** _

* * *

**  
**

Jason Grace, despite the ever-turning gossip mill at his university, is not as much of a follow-the-rules type of guy as previously thought. Jason Grace, in his third year of university and all his football-playing glory, begins the mess of his life on a nondescript Friday night.

It began like this: Jason was invited to a party. Percy was the start of it all. Percy is always the start of it all. Percy had convinced him that the party in his apartment would be nice and quiet. It would be a joyous juxtaposition to his tense days and stressful nights spent studying.

Jason should have known that it was a lie.

So Jason began this by being stuck at a party with people he didn’t know. All the friends he did know were either flirting with people or busy getting drunk to forget spending 23,000 dollars or more on a tuition they couldn’t afford. Jason understood the underaged drinking for some of them. Jason was lounging against the wall, drinking his beer, letting the bass of the loud music vibrate through his skin, when he saw him.

Across the room, leaning in the casted shadows of the makeshift dance floor of Percy’s apartment, was a guy looking on the scene of dancing and gyrating college students with a look of disdain. He wore tight black jeans, a belt, a white shirt, and a shiny leather jacket. The lights flashing in the apartment reflected off his skin as it created a glow on his skin. Before he knew what he was doing or even really thought about it at all, Jason was making his way over. He leaned against the wall right next to the guy with the undercut and intimidating air.

“I’m Jason.” He tried to say over the speakers. Although it mostly came out muffled and muted.

The guy nodded, scanning the area. “Nico.”

Nico. He hadn't yelled it over the speakers the way Jason had. It felt as though he'd whispered it right into his ear. Jason mulled over the name. It was nice. He stood there for a while just watching Nico and allowing his third beer to warm him and let a slight haze run over the things he saw. There were so many people in the one apartment.

Nico leaned over. “Wanna get out of here?”

Jason smiled at him. “Sure.”

Nico pulled him through the throng of people until they were out in the cool hallway. Nico turned to look towards the ends of the hallway before his lips came into contact with Jason’s. It felt nice. Jason could feel his haze slowly receding, but enjoyed the kiss with the buzz in the back of his head. Nico tasted like orange juice and alcohol, something Jason didn’t mind too much as Nico ran his tongue over Jason’s lips, seeking entrance into his mouth. Jason opened his mouth in a breathy gasp and Nico kissed him with fervor. Maybee Percy hadn’t been so wrong after all.

Nico dropped to his knees and Jason’s eyes widened at the insinuation.

“Whoa, whoa, I-”

Nico spread his palm over Jason’s chest and looked up at him. “Relax. You’ll enjoy it. Is it okay if I. . .?”

Nico trailed off, inclining a finger at Jason’s groin. Jason nodded and gulped. He never did this. Jason waited until his relationships had developed. Jason was practical and reasonable and he was known as the goody-two-shoes. Jason prided himself on being the only one, or one of the only ones, within his group of friends who thought practically and did things in calculated measure. Jason had never done anything like this before. It was uncouth, not that Jason cared much about things like that, but it was thoughtless, it was dangerous with anybody being able to come by at any time to see a guy on his knees, sucking Jason off. But as soon as Nico’s mouth was on him and he reached down, gathering Nico’s hair in his hands, Jason wasn’t really focused on what he did and did not too. When they both came in the silent hallways with the walls vibrating from the bass of the music on the other side they both stared at each other for a moment.

Jason was speechless.

Nico looked at him and smirked. “Nice to meet you, Superman. See ya around.”

He slipped into the apartment, letting the shadows and flashing lights carry him away before Jason could get a good look at him. Jason slumped down to the floor and promptly passed out.

Jason woke up with a throbbing headache and a name in the back of his mind. Percy was also staring down at him.

“Well if it isn’t our resident nerd. Whatcha doing out here?”

Jason groaned as he rose to his feet.

Percy grinned at him. “Let me guess, you’re hungover?”

Jason gave him a withering look. “You’re lucky I don’t have classes today.”

Percy chuckled. “Lucky me. So, seriously, what are you doing out here?”

Jason blushed, recalling the guy named Nico who had exchanged sex with him and disappeared. He made something up on the fly.

“I fell asleep out here because the music was too loud.”

Percy sighed and opened their apartment door. “Sorry about that. Parties always tend to get out of hand for some reason.”

“It’s because you can’t say no to a good time, even if some of us have work the next day.” Annabeth said as she made her way to the kitchen. She gave Percy a kiss as she did so.

Percy scoffed. “Please, you were the one who started beer pong. You’re not fooling anyone, Wise Girl.”

Annabeth grinned and set coffee to brew. “That you are right about.”

Jason was sure it was the first time Percy had ever been right about anything ever involving Annabeth.

Annabeth gave him a sympathetic look. “Sorry about the noise, Jason.”

Jason shrugged and sat at their small dining room. “It’s fine,” he thought about the way Nico looked sucking him off, it had been dark, sure, but Jason was allowed to fill in the blanks, “it was worth it.”

**  
**

A few days went by and Jason couldn’t forget Nico. Nico, Nico. Nico. The name rang like a mantra in his head. It was the name he whispered at night when he was awakened from a wet dream and the name and face he imagined when he thought back to the party. Jason had been surprised by the spontaneity. He never did unpredictable and filthy things like that. Jason had never really done anything spontaneous or unexpected in his life.

Days turned into weeks and Piper was holding a party for her birthday. He was sitting at home at the time she told him about it.

“So you’ll come?” She asked with a hopeful smiled.

He nodded and sighed. “Like I would miss your birthday.”

Piper smiled at him. “Knew you wouldn’t. Thanks, Jason. See you there.”

Jason gave her a hug and she went to tell Percy and Annabeth about it. The party was on a Saturday. It was held in Piper’s stylishly decorated and well-sized apartment bought by her father when she had told him she had wanted to stay in New York with her friends. When Jason, Percy, and Annabeth walked in there were already a good few people and the music, unlike the last party he’d been to, was playing loud, but quiet enough that people didn’t need to shout to hear each other. Annabeth left Percy and Jason alone when she spotted Piper, saying she had things to discuss.

Percy turned to Jason. “See anyone you’re interested in?”

Jason nodded. “No. Percy, we talked about this.”

Percy put his hands up in surrender. “Hey man, I’m just looking out for my best bro.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “You can barely look after yourself.”

Percy scoffed. “I resent that, Grace!”

Jason laughed and they both were met with Leo joining them.

“Hey guys.”

Percy waved and smiled at him happily. Jason greeted him.

“Hey, how’s the mechanics scholarship, man?”

Leo grinned. “Oh, it’s wicked! Totally amazing. I’ve made this toaster. . .”

And the night went on, slowly more people came, and slowly the music got louder until it was throbbing through Jason’s skull.

It was two in the morning when Jason saw him. He should have wondered how he kept showing up suddenly to all the parties he was attending, but there were a lot of people. Jason wouldn’t be surprised if Piper had invited everyone she knew and their friends to watch her get spectacularly drunk for her twenty first birthday. Jason was not drunk, being the designated driver tended to stave those urges off. Nico looked over at him and something in his eyes flashed mischievously. Just like the previous time, Nico was bathed in black light and the flashing of colored lights. He made a motion with his finger as if beckoning for Jason to come closer. Jason nearly tripped over himself crossing the room.

He stood close to Nico and Nico leaned into his ear. “Wanna get out of here?”

Jason nodded his head rapidly. Nico led him down the hall as if he knew the halls by heart, something even Jason didn’t know. Nico opened a door and he was taken into a room with a simple bed, simple drawer, and a clear desk. Jason assumed this was the guest room in Piper’s apartment that he had used over and over again on days when he just decided to crash here after school or a study session. Nico pushed him into the bed and without the haze of alcohol Jason could feel the warmth of Nico’s hands even more acutely. The loud music was muted, muffled and the only light that lit up the room was the one of the street lamps from the street outside. Their skin held a slightly orange tint from the light and most of Nico’s features were shadowed.

Nico straddled him and Jason let out a breath.

“Someone might barge in.” In an attempt to get Nico to reconsider what they were about to do. Jason didn’t do things like this, he really didn’t. But apparently this stranger with features he couldn’t quite make out brought out the worst in him.

Nico latched onto his neck and bit him softly. Jason bit back a moan.

“Let them.” Nico said softly.

Dear christ that voice was soft but rough at the same time and his brain nearly short-circuited from the sound of it.

Nico began to grind against him, letting out moans every now and then and Jason let out a groan. Nico smirked at him and slid off him. He was on his knees in front of Jason, who sat at the edge of the bed, and suddenly it was the other night happening all over again. Jason was scared he was making a habit of it. Although, when he was climaxing harder than he had ever before, he couldn’t bring himself to care.

They lay back on the bed, spent, with their clothes in a pile on the floor.

Jason was attempting to get his breathing and heart rate back in order before he said anything when he heard a voice call out beyond the door.

“Jason! Where are you?” Percy yelled drunkenly.

Jason shot up and before he knew it he was pulling on his clothes. He turned to Nico who didn’t stare at him the way he had when he had first seen him that night. He looked closed off, cold.

“Go. He’s waiting.” Nico said softly, with a mildly disinterested look on his face.

Jason hesitated for a moment before he was out of the door and face to face with a very drunk Percy. Percy cheered when he saw him.

“Hey man! You ran off! Was lookin’ all o’er for you!” His words slurred and tripped over themselves.

“Found me. Ready to go home?”

Percy nodded rapidly. “Oh yeah. Anna- Annie- Annabeth, she says it’s time for slep. Sleep. Sleepy. I’m sleepy, Jason.”

Jason chuckled and led him to the door where Annabeth was already waiting. She stared at him with a mixture of disgust and fondness. People who knew Percy generally became very familiar with this look.

“Come on, man. You can sleep in the car.”

Percy smiled lazily at him. “Sleep sounds s’ good right now.”

Jason carefully lay him in the back seat while Annabeth buckled herself in and Jason began to drive them home. Annabeth single-handedly took him up the stairs, changed him into his pajamas, and lay him in bed. Jason took a shower, washing off the feeling of Nico’s sweat and other bodily fluids from his body. No matter how hard he scrubbed his skin still burned with the warmth of ghost fingers and what they had been doing hours before. Jason washed himself off, dried himself off, and lay under the covers, trying to imagine what his one night stand looked like.

When Percy woke up the next morning and made his way into the kitchen where Jason was making pancakes he groaned.

“I can’t believe I got trashed last night.”

“Better believe it, Seaweed Brain.” Annabeth said as she made her way into the kitchen.

Percy spared a look at Jason. “Please tell me those are blue pancakes.”

Jason showed him the contents of the bowl to show a bowl filled with aquamarine colored pancake mix.

Percy gave him a grateful smile. “Grace, you are the best friend a guy could ask for.”

Jason snorted and rolled his eyes. “Don’t I know it.”

Annabeth looked at him as she sat down with a cup of coffee in her hands. “Anything interesting happen to you last night?”

Jason looked at the batter in the pan and tried to forget the burning sensations on his skin.

“No. Not really.”

**  
**

It began with a party. And it continued with a party. Two weeks after the incident in Piper’s guest room Jason agreed to go to Leo’s party to celebrate his being given a grant to work on mechanics for the airplane industry. Leo was beyond excited and Jason had been steadily keeping up with all his work, although it certainly was difficult. This party, like all their parties tended to be, was on a weekend. This time it was a Saturday again.

Jason arrived by himself, Annabeth and Percy having arrived earlier to make sure that Leo didn’t burn his couch decorating. (That happened once and Leo never hears the end of it.) Reyna was the one who opened the door when he knocked, clad in his usual attire of jeans, a plain colored t-shirt, and the plain letterman jacket he had grabbed on the fly because he didn’t want to be late.

Reyna smirked at him. “Nice to see you, Jason.”

She looked at him as though she knew something she didn’t. Jason had been used to that look when they dated and the entirety of their friendship.

“Hey there.” He greeted cordially.

He walked in and Reyna walked beside him. “So, I’ve heard that you’ve been seen leaving with a dark stranger every once in awhile lately.”

Jason scanned the room and turned to her, trying his best to look at innocent as possible.

“If by dark stranger, you mean carrying Percy’s drunk body home, then yes.”

Reyna chuckled and leaned into his ear. “He’s in the hallway.”

Then she was gone Jason turned the corner of the living room to find that Nico was indeed right there, standing next to a couple who was making out, and he was staring at them once in awhile with disdain.

Jason stood on his other side.

“Liking the party?”

Nico turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow, and turned to stare at the wall opposite them. “My friend made me come.”

Before Jason could say anything, build a conversation beyond that, Nico had his mouth on his. Jason wanted to push him away, wanted to talk more, get to know him better, but his mouth tasted like some cherry flavored drink and his hands were roaming under Jason’s shirt and Jason knew those weren’t the rules. It wasn’t part of the rules to want to get to know your occasional fling’s name, or his interests, or if he’d like to have coffee with you. Jason settled with orgasms in the bathroom and decided that it had to be good enough.

Jason woke up in bed the next morning. He stared at the ceiling. Nico. Why had he never seen him around? Surely in their campus, as big as it was, he could find a guy who knew him on an intimate level. But Jason knew it wasn't that easy, because he barely knew what Nico looked like, he didn’t even know his exact skin tone for fuck sake. Jason got up, padded to the kitchen, and he turned to see Annabeth smiling, with Percy’s arms around her waist as she cooked. Jason, at that exact moment, kind of hated them. Perfect couple with their stupid and cute couple-y things.

Annabeth turned to him, wrenching Percy free from around her waist. “Hey, we lost you last night when you got to the party.”

Jason nodded silently as he sipped the coffee that had been set out for him.

Percy grinned him. “Reyna told me you were hanging out with Nico.”

Jason gulped down the hot liquid, effectively burning his tongue in the process. They knew him. how had they known him and never introduced them in the light of day.

“Yep.” He said, quietly.

Percy waggled his eyebrows. “How is that going?”

Jason rolled his eyes, trying to deflect the question. “Like you need to worry about it.”

Annabeth turned her gray eyes on him and something in them always unsettled him, because it was like he could tell if she knew he was lying.

“Are you guys serious?”

Jason nodded his eyes, keeping the eye contact he couldn’t look away from. “No, we’re not.”

**  
**

The next time Jason saw Nico (and Jason would like the records to show that he tried _very_ hard to find Nico, went to every party his friends mentioned for two months, with no avail) it was three months later. It also happened to be the party Percy would propose to Annabeth at. Jason was holding the pressure Percy was feeling along with the anxiety that Nico would show up, and juggling those two was difficult at best.

Annabeth was scheduled to come back at six and Percy and Jason were setting things up with Reyna.

“Guys, she could say no. Like, in her Annabeth way where she makes it super embarrassing for me.”

Reyna rolled her eyes and Jason sighed. “You’ll do fine. She’ll say yes and you’ll be fine, man.”

Percy wrung his hands once he set down all the food on the table in the kitchen. “She’s totally too good for me, man.”

Reyna snorted. “Certainly. But she still decided to stay with you.”

Percy seemed to like that answer and nodded as he ran his fingers through his hair nervously.

When six o’clock came and Annabeth was surprised by the party, Jason wondered how she’d take the proposal.

It was eight o’clock and Nico was nowhere to be seen and Jason knew it was time for Percy to finally do it. Jason settled for supporting his friend.

Percy was pacing in the kitchen.

Jason put both hands on Percy’s shoulders. “Come on, man, you can do this.”

Percy nodded and made his way to the living room quickly. Jason followed behind him. Percy turned down the speakers and everyone turned to him. He turned to Jason who nodded his encouragement.

He walked over to where Annabeth was talking to Jason’s sister, Thalia. He pulled her silently by her hand to the center of the room. He turned to the entire crowd before he turned to Annabeth.

Thalia saddled up next to him. “Five bucks he throws up.”

Jason nodded. “No, he did that five minutes ago.”

Thalia grinned and looked at the couple. “Oh, you’re on.”

Percy turned to Annabeth, his eyes wide, from where Jason could see them.

Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows but she had a smirk and her eyes looked playful. “What are you doing, Seaweed Brain?”

Percy dropped to one knee and looked up at her. Annabeth’s face was blank and unreadable, most likely from shock, if Jason had any guesses.

Percy gulped. “We’ve been best friends since middle school, when you beat up Clarisse LaRue for almost giving me a swirly.” The people in the room laughed.

He looked at her, taking her hands in his and Annabeth still looked in shock. “You are always right, you are definitely too good for me,” he pulled out a ring with one hand, “and I want to spend the rest of my life proving that I'm good enough for you. Will you marry me?”

The air seemed to be sucked from the room as Percy looked up for Annabeth’s answer.

She blinked and suddenly her eyes were swimming with tears. Jason saw the way they shimmered regardless and he understood how Percy had been able to go on and on about her when they first met. She threw her arms around and him.

“You’re an idiot, of course I’ll marry you. Did you have to ask?”

And the crowd was cheering and they were surrounded by family and friends and cheering.

Jason grinned and turned to Thalia. “Pay up.”

She sighed and reached for her wallet. “I swear he did not have this strong a stomach when we were in high school.”

Jason pocketed the money as Percy made his way over, hand in hand with Annabeth. They were both grinning madly.

“Have you seen my FIANCE? This is my fiance, Annabeth Chase.”

Annabeth rolled her eyes affectionately and Jason grinned at them. “Good job, man! I knew it would work out.”

Percy smiled widely. “Yeah. Yeah it did.”

And suddenly the music was blaring loudly, the lights were dimmed and everyone was dancing. Jason got a beer, and began dancing with his friends in the throng of people. It was an amazing night and as he walked away from his dancing friends, sweating slightly, with his shirt sticking to him, he saw Nico against the wall.

He went over, grinning. “Hey.”

Nico looked past him at Annabeth and Percy and he made an inclination with his hand, which had a cup in it. Whatever was in it, it was strong.

“See th’m. Can’t have somethin’ like that. Queer people can’t get married. Stupid laws.”

Jason smiled at him in amusement. He was drunk. Nico di Angelo was shitfaced and talking to Jason and he had never been more happy and slightly sober.

Nico continued. “An’ you. You with the cheekbones and that _bella faccia*_.”

Jason was sure that was another language all together. Nico muttered some more but soon he was launching himself forward and trying to kiss Jason.

Jason held back by his shoulders. “Whoa, man. You are very obviously drunk.”

Nico nodded and leaned forward, but Jason held him back still. “Not when you’re drunk. I’m not that kind of guy.”

Nico leaned into his ear somehow and whispered, “I know what type of guy you are.”

Jason shivered, but still held him at arm's length. He turned to see the party was winding down and he led him to his room.

“Come on, I think you should head to bed.”

Nico smiled at him lazily. “Yeah, bed, and then we’re going to _fare una cosa di sesso**_.”

Jason wasn’t sure what he said, but the way the words rolled out of his mouth made Jason’s nerves stand on end.

Jason laid him down. “Right. Definitely. How about after you sleep?”

Nico sighed sleepily, already seeming lethargic. “Sleep. I never stay for long. Don’t do things like this.” He muttered and Jason snorted. That made two of them then.

Jason wasn’t sure how it happened but he ended up sleeping right next to Nico. When he woke up the next morning it was because of the sun streaming in through the windows and he turned to find Nico still snoring lightly beside him.

Jason nearly gasped at the sight.

Nico’s skin was a deep tanned olive color, his clothes, though old, fit him like gloves, and his hair, the undercut Jason had seen in so many of his dreams, wet or otherwise, was a dark black, but looked silky and soft as it was splayed across Jason’s pillow. Oh, Jason was in deep shit now.

He must have gasped a little because the next thing he knew Nico was stirring. Nico turned a bit and when he realized what happened last night his eyes shot open and he turned to Jason quickly.

Jason was sitting against the headboard, arms behind his head and smiled. “Hey.”

Nico groaned. “Oh great.”

Jason sat up beside him. “What’s up?”

Nico stared at him warily before he turned and began to pull his shoes on. “You’re perfect.”

“I am?” Jason asked, not expecting the comment.

Nico scoffed. “Please, I’m sure you knew that. Don’t football players usually have a narcissistic streak?”

Jason shrugged. “I wouldn’t know.”

Nico stood, lingering a bit. “Right, well, thanks for letting me sleep here, sorry for throwing myself at you, and see ya around.”

Jason doubted that, but before he could say anything Nico was out his door and already making his way out of the apartment.

Annabeth and Percy peaked their heads out from their room.

“Was that Nico?”

Jason nodded. “It’s not like you think.”

Percy gave him a wink. “Right, man, totally. I totally get it. Not at all like I think.”

**  
**

Jason didn’t see him for a while. Jason couldn’t get him out of his head. Nico’s brown eyes that looked dark but he remembered looking at when they had passionate sex. Seeing him in the daylight, with sun bathing his skin and covering him in golden light had changed Jason.

It was a month since the morning after incident, when Jason saw a flash of him at his university. Nico was rushing by and Jason might have missed him if it hadn’t been for the fact that Jason was daydreaming about him. He quickly got up from his chair in the library and followed after Nico in a rush. Nico made his way to the art wing of the school, slipping into one of the studios.

Jason peered through, watching Nico set down his bag uncover a canvas. Nico had his paints set on a table right beside the huge canvas and Jason watched in rapt attention as Nico made stroke after stroke as though every color was meant to be there and they came together beautiful.

“Wow.” He whispered.

Nico jumped.

Nico turned to him quickly, before he could even consider running away and hiding from him. “What are you doing here?”

That rough yet smooth voice sounded even better when they were both sober, even if it was said in a clipping tone.

Jason shrugged, coming up with an excuse. “I got lost, saw you painting and decided I’d stick around.”

“My sessions are private.” Nico said in that clipped tone. Jason noticed the tattoos on his arms and wondered if he’d drawn those himself.

“Sorry I bothered you.” And Jason continued to stand there.

“Are you going to leave?” Nico said impatiently.

Jason nodded.

“Sure, if you tell me why you left in such a hurry.”

Nico’s aggressive stance fell and his hard features turned to confusion.

“That’s how those things work. I leave before anyone can say too much or embarrass themselves.”

Jason would have no doubt embarrassed himself telling Nico how beautiful he looked.

Jason looked at him. “I didn’t want you to leave.”

Nico stared at him, saying nothing. His brown eyes were unreadable and Jason took a few steps forward.

“Who was it that would kick you out of their bed?”

Nico looked down, chipping paint off his fingers. “Lots. That’s kind of how college works. Sex with no attachments.”

Jason stepped closer. “No attachments. That’s what you wanted from me?”

Nico held up his head but looked everywhere but Jason. He shrugged.

Jason took one last step forward and they were standing a hair away from each other. “Do you want that now?”

Nico hesitated, looking into his eyes.

“Be honest.” Jason said.

Nico shook his head. “No.”

And Jason was kissing him within an inch of his life. They kissed, mouths joined and it was languid, Jason wanted to take time here. There weren’t any flashing lights or dark rooms or pounding bass, and Jason wanted to remember how Nico’s mouth felt on his under the fluorescent lights of the studio.

Jason pulled away eventually and smiled at him.

It began like this: Jason asked the boy for coffee and to no one’s surprise, he said yes.

 

* * *

 

_*Bella faccia: pretty face_

_**fare una cossa di sesso: do a sex thing_

 


	2. If It Weren't For You Meddling Grandmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Nico and Jason's grandmas are Hestia and Aphrodite respectively.

**Prompt:** _"our grandmothers met recently and are now the best of friends, trying to set us up"_ au

 

 

* * *

**  
  
**

Jason didn’t know much about gods or grandmothers, only that when Aphrodite appear on the front step of his cabin, he knew enough horror stories from Percy to be afraid. Very afraid. Aphrodite showed up in a shimmering dress, her face flashing and showing Jason many faces at once. He wasn’t sure if the face settled, but for a few moments it settled on Reyna, then shifted to Piper, and even on one very private and not at all embarrassing moment, Nico. Aphrodite smiled at him.

“So this is the famous Jason Grace? It’s no mistake your mother named you Jason, really.”

Jason just stared at her. “Uhm. . .”

Aphrodite waved a hand dismissively. “Although you’re nothing like that Jason, leaving behind mortal women, demigod women, no respect really. None at all.”

Jason looked at her, turning to see if any of the other campers could see. None of them seemed to notice.

Aphrodite giggled. “Oh, they can’t see me. Not right now anyway. I’ll make myself known soon.”

Jason nodded. “So, uhm, not to be rude or anything, but what are you doing here, Lady Venus?”

Aphrodite waved a hand once again. “Oh please, Aphrodite. Venus is so. . . harsh. She’s no fun at all.”

Jason nodded and motioned for her to come into the cabin. A few passing campers looked at him funny, but he was mainly focused on why the love goddess had chosen to set her sights on him.

“Well, because you’re special, Jason.”

She said as an answer to his thoughts and he shivered at the intrusion. The last time a goddess had been inside his head he ended up losing his memory.

Aphrodite looked around the room and Jason had heard about Percy being transfixed by Aphrodite, but Jason didn’t feel that way. Jason wondered if it was a defect of his.

Aphrodite giggled and it sounded like bells in Jason’s ears.

“Oh, dear Jason, that’s because I’m not in a form that attracts you. You know who you want. You’ve wanted him for quite a bit now.”

Jason gulped. It had been two years since the war with Gaia and Nico had stayed behind after. Three days with Will and Jason and Nico had decided to stay on and off. Jason had sat in his bed with him while he recovered and he learned Mythomagic while Nico talked about it animatedly and Jason had watched him come to life. He agreed to two weeks in the infirmary after that. And then he had promised a month at camp and slowly he was making promises to their friends and keeping them too. It seemed that the more people showed they wanted Nico around, the less inclined he felt to leave. Two years and Nico was tanner, taller, happier, more proud of himself. Nico was different in gradual ways and Jason had noticed. It hit him like a freight that May when Nico came back from the Underworld, ready for a new year at camp, and Jason was blown away by the noticeable change time had brought. The attraction came first, the love, well, that had always been there.

Jason was in love with Nico di Angelo and no one except maybe everyone knew.

Aphrodite seemed to sense what he was thinking and giggled her bell-ringing laugh again. “Nico is quite oblivious, isn’t he?”

Jason crossed his arms, slightly put out. “Why are you here?”

Aphrodite smiled at him sweetly, which only fed his suspicion. “Hestia and I have been talking.”

Jason didn’t buy that. Nico had mentioned Hestia once in a while, saying that the goddess was modest and kind. Knowing what he did about Hestia, or Vesta, this sounded like a trainwreck waiting to happen.

Aphrodite smiled at him wickedly. She looked heartbreakingly beautiful, sure, but something about the way she carried herself seemed to Jason something of a mirage, something dishonest and shimmering.

“Well, see, Jason Grace, I don’t really like telling mortals when I’ve decided to start meddling. But this is a special gift for you!” She said it gleefully.

Jason just stared at her, nervous, slightly shocked, but somehow, not at all.

“Uh. . .  Thanks?”

Aphrodite smiled at him, this time Jason was completely entranced. Her smile was open, it was honest, it was beautiful and even Jason didn’t trust her he stared into her eyes and he couldn’t look away. For some reason his eyes were glued on her. It was an almost agonizing enthralling need to pay attention to her and never look away. Her eyes shimmered and Jason could swear that her eyes were dark brown like Nico’s. _Pools of chocolate. So **brown**. So **deep**_. Pools. Jason couldn’t stop staring. _**Nico.**_

Aphrodite blinked.

Jason came back to himself and he gasped as his limbs became his again.

Aphrodite giggled. Jason was getting really tired of that laugh. “See, Jason? I am certainly older than any of my brothers and sisters, but everyone forgets that. Remember my power, boy, and understand that I’m on your side! Like your cool grandma, but uck, not so old.”

Jason stared at her, eyebrows furrowed in worry and wariness. “Okay. But what does that have to do with coming to my cabin?”

Aphrodite clapped her hands together. “And that’s the question! Well, you see, Hestia and I have been talking. Honestly, she’s a bit boring, even for a maiden, but that woman sure is smart. And she hears quite a lot. It’s a wonder I never went to her before.”

Jason nodded.

Aphrodite looked at him expectantly, but when he didn’t say anything she squealed. “Oh, all right! I’ve decided to set up you and Nico! He really is a nice boy, so sad, sad hearts, oh those are the best ones to-”

“Hold up.” Jason said quickly.

Aphrodite looked at him.

“You mean to tell me, you’re going to set me up?”

Aphrodite smiled.

Jason quickly nodded his head. “No, no no, I refuse this. I thank you for your offer, Lady Aphrodite, but I don’t want this to be some meddling god’s business.”

Aphrodite rolled her eyes. “Oh please, you mortal seven have been on Hephaestus TV for as long as you were alive! What with a little help for the goddess of love herself?”

Jason glowered at her. “Your son outed Nico against his will.”

Aphrodite didn’t bat an eye, but her eyes seemed sadder, almost sympathetic, if Jason believed she could be capable of such an emotion. She sighed.

“I will tell you something, Jason Grace. My son, Eros, he is brutal, harsh, mean, because love can’t afford to be so soft. That outing, albeit against his will, did help him grow as a person. He has opened up as a result. Nico is more open to love in all it’s forms.”

Jason couldn’t deny that, but having watched the skeletons that crawled out of the ground and the desperate way Nico clung to falsehoods, it had been too much. Jason had been supportive, but Nico looked broken after, his eyes distant, and Jason had worried because he couldn’t possibly have gotten lower, gotten even worse than he already was. But that time in Croatia, it had laid him low in a whole new way.

Aphrodite sighed. “It was crass on my son’s part, but I do acknowledge that Nico had been beyond reason then. And he has come quite a long way. All that heartbreak will amount to something.”

Jason saw the way she looked, and Jason understood her for a moment. Her eyes looked sad, told a story he couldn’t even begin to understand, but he could tell she almost felt remorse. Love was fragile, certain ties worked better than others, and sometimes other ties, just couldn’t, wouldn’t, work. Nico had loved Percy, but Percy and Annabeth, even the gods knew how inevitable that was, how strong they would be. So Nico had been left with a severed tie, and sure he had healed, but having your first love be that kind of painful love, it had hurt him and Jason had been there the entire time it had. And here was Aphrodite, who looked visibly upset that Nico had been a severed tie, had suffered much more than heroes ought to. Aphrodite may have been vain, may have been as shallow as a two inch kiddie pool, but love was love, and Aphrodite cared about that.

Jason sighed. He wasn’t sure he would live to regret this, but he’d sure as hell live through the embarrassment.

“Fine. Lady Aphrodite, do what you want.”

Aphrodite squealed and she shimmered with a golden pink hue even brighter. “Oh goodness! It’ll be fantastic!”

Jason just watched her, and wasn’t sure what he’d just gotten himself into.

Aphrodite smiled at him and left out of his cabin door. He followed right behind her.

“Well, the camp is looking bland, it’s Valentine’s Day after all.”

She waved her hand over camp and the greek fire lanterns turned to a red and pink hue, little paper heart garlands showed up, hanging from the cabin roofs. The Demeter cabin’s left wall began to bloom wildly with different kinds of flowers.

Campers came out of their cabins to see what had brought on the change, and Aphrodite grinned at them all.

“Hello, campers! Happy Valentine’s Day!”

The campers bowed and suddenly she was flocked by campers.

The girls from camp began to ask her questions and the boys hung back nervously.

Piper showed up next to him, standing by the middle of the cabin grounds.

“Let me guess, mom had a little talk with you about Nico?”

Jason looked at her in shock. “How did you know?”

Piper shrugged, watching the campers flock Aphrodite, who loved the attention, bleeding narcissist.

“Why else would she be here? Plus I heard from a verified source that she’s been talking to Hestia. _Hestia._  Who also happens to be Nico’s closest tie to the Olympians, besides his father. It wasn’t that hard to put together, mother is fairly transparent, but I guess you knew that already.”

Jason nodded. “I’m in trouble, aren’t I?”

Piper grinned at him and chuckled.

“Oh, yeah, definitely.”

**  
  
**

Nico was sitting by the fire in the middle of the woods. He had set the fire, trying not to offend the wood nymphs who watched him warily, until he showed them his synthetic greek fire. They smiled at him, made noises that resembled birds chirping, which he took as a thank you, and then proceeded to sprint away to wherever wood nymphs go.

He lit the fire and said a little prayer, and Lady Hestia appeared.

She smiled at him sweetly. “Hello again, Nico.”

He loved the way she smiled at him. Sometimes when camp got too much, got too stifling after years of solitude, he’d come to a spot deep in the forest, and he’d sit with her, let her warmth and care wash over him. Somehow she would summon those treats Nico remembered from Italy, and she’d serve them to him warm, and it was almost like home again. Nico loved the time he spent with Hestia.

He bowed. “Lady Hestia.”

Lady Hestia sat across from him by the fire and smiled at him. “How long has it been since we last talked? About a month, was it not?”

Nico nodded.

She smiled. “You used to summon me twice a week. This is fantastic progress.”

He smiled at her, her smile was warm and supportive, it reminded him of Bianca. “Yeah. I guess I never realized I was getting better.”

Hestia tended to the fire. “So why did you summon me then?”

Nico lay back in the grass. “I’ve been having some trouble. Like, troubles with a relationship.”

Hestia froze. That meddlesome Aphrodite better not have ruined what she was working so hard to cultivate. “Oh?”

Nico put his hands behind his back and sighed. “It’s Jason.”

Hestia looked up. Aphrodite had talked to her about them, had wanted to talk about what was good for them both, but Hestia had worked so hard to get Nico to open up. The gods were forbidden to talk to their children, but Nico was not her child, in the traditional sense, but she had worked to help him be happy. Happiness affected the hearth, it affected homes, it hurt them too. For too long Nico had been broken, his family troubled, or not having a real home, and when Jason Grace had convinced Nico to stay she had been relieved. He needed a hearth to come back to, and Camp Half-Blood was as good as any, safer too. Hestia had extended her hand because it was what was best for him, to make his heart and home warm again. Hestia had cultivated a relationship with him like she had not formed with any mortal in millenia. His happiness was her happiness and she shared her hearth with him.

“What is it?” She said quietly.

Nico glanced at her, eyes wary. “You know, about my condition, right?”

Hestia hated the way he called his attractions an affliction. Home was comfort, was warmth, home was warmth and comfort wherever you found it, man or woman.

Hestia smiled at him comfortingly. “Of course.”

Nico loved her smile the best. In her simple brown dress and shawl, with burning eyes, she felt safe. She reminded him of Bianca.

“Well, it’s. . . well. . . I- and him. . .” He trailed off, partially because he wasn’t sure how to put it into words, and partially because it felt strange telling Lady Hestia about it. Nico had never quite held back telling her things, because she was home and heart and she knew him, but with things like this, it felt strange to talk about things gods didn’t quite sympathize with.

Hestia smiled at him again, her eyes accepting and kind. “You love the mortal, Jason Grace.”

Nico nodded, he could feel the blush rising in his cheeks.

She looked back at the fire without a word and began to tend to it again. It was good that Nico had been open to love. A hearth without love was a cold one, indeed. And from what Aphrodite had mentioned, Jason was a hero type, a good hero, a kind and modest one. Aphrodite had begged her to help her, but Hestia had been hesitant. Aphrodite was. . . Not Hestia. Aphrodite enjoyed dramatics and flare and eccentricity and Hestia, well, she didn’t. She was a modest goddess, enjoyed her immortal life as such, but for once in her vain existence Aphrodite had sounded sincere, had made a valid argument even. Hestia had to oblige that a life without love for boys like Nico was a sad life indeed.

“Let me help you.” Hestia said quietly.

Nico looked at her, shocked.

“Lady Hestia?”

She gave him a sincere look. “I have been talking with another goddess. We think we can help you and Jason. I would love to see only our happiness, Nico.”

Nico stared at her, eyebrows knit in confusion. “Who have you been talking with?”

Hestia didn’t hesitate. “Aphrodite.”

Nico immediately nodded his head, getting up to leave. “No. No. No. I refuse. Thank you, Lady Hestia, for your kind offer, but I must refuse.”

Hestia looked at him pleadingly. “It would help you a great deal, Nico. Plus I shan’t let Aphrodite run amok with this. I will make sure it is done with your full consent.”

Nico wavered, looking into her bright eyes where he could see how passionately she wanted to help him.

“Only you, Lady Hestia.”

She smiled at him. “Only me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one is so short! If you'd like to see more of this prompt or submit a prompt to me feel free to comment! I hope you enjoyed! And stay tuned for more! :D


	3. Anything You Lose Comes 'Round In Another Form

**Prompt:** _"We keep reincarnating as people who speak different languages and it’s kind of pissing me off because I can never initially confirm if it’s you but at least I keep learning a bunch of cool new languages each lifetime"_ au

* * *

**  
**

The very first time Jason met Nico it was when Jason was Achilles. Ancient Greece, one of the greatest warriors to be remembered in history, and Jason was a blond haired Greek hero who couldn’t understand how a war from the gods had gone so far. Jason was the son of Thetis and Peleus, and had grown to be his father’s pride. Thetis had been harsh and unforgiving.

Jason lived a life of comfortability, until he met Patroclus.

Patroclus was the exiled son of a king. Nico wasn’t sure how he’d gotten the name, but he knew he was Patroclus the first time he had seen Jason.

Achilles (who would become Jason) had met Patroclus (who would become Nico) when he was a boy. Patroclus had wandered into their kingdom one day, dehydrated, looking sickly, and several inches shorter than Achilles. King Peleus had allowed them to play, allowed Patroclus to be his manservant, and things had gone swimmingly.

Achilles and Patroclus had loved each other from their boyhood. It was easy to conceal it, easy for Achilles to excuse their bond for that of a lifelong friendship. Achilles in his golden hair and skin had loved Patroclus, with his dark hair and dark skin and his eyes that sometimes held a sadness Achilles could not understand. They made love away from the world and had spent days hunting together, having only each other for company, and they were the best days of Patroclus’s life. They had continued on this way for many moons and many days.

Until the Trojan War came.

The Trojan War and Menelaus had asked for Achilles to help and Patroclus had gone with him straight into battle.

Five years and Achilles had grown tired of the fighting.

“It’s just too much, Patroclus.” He’d said.

Patroclus nodded silently, secretly grateful that Achilles had stepped away from the fighting when he did.

But days and months wore on and Odysseus had begged him to join, coming to them when they had retreated to a life by the sea in a hut.

“Please. The war cannot last so long. Please come and aid us in our fight, Achilles.”

Achilles nodded. “No, I must stay here,” he wrapped an arm around Patroclus who looked at him in wonder as he always did, “I have obligations now.”

Odysseus pleaded for a week, and when he left to retreat back to Troy Patroclus went with him, stealing away in the night with Achilles’ armor.

He rallied the troops. It felt good to be so important, so heard, so revered.

Patroclus gathered all his strength as he charged into battle, his warriors following as they shifted the tide of the war, simply because Patroclus had to save their comrades, but could not see Achilles fall at the hand of a war that was not his own. Granted, it was not his, either, but Patroclus couldn’t stand a world where the golden skin of Achilles was pale and sickly, lifeless in a way even Hades could not reverse.

Patroclus charged into battle, feeling strength surge him as he defended the young man with golden skin and golden hair, and eyes like the ocean, so blue Zeus himself must have casted the sky into his irises.

Achilles rode a long way, chasing after foolishly brave Patroclus as he vexed himself with worry over the state Patroclus might be in. Patroclus was not weak, looked small and broken, yes, but he was not weak, and Achilles prayed to all gods in attendance for Patroclus to live.

Achilles had just reached Patroclus as Hector ran his spear through him. Patroclus fell to the ground, Achilles screaming after him, his tears unrelenting and his agony undisguised.

“Patroclus, oh my dear Patroclus!” Achilles was sure he sounded like a banshee as he wailed.

Patroclus no longer held focus with his dark brown eyes. “Achilles. My Achilles, we’ve won the war.”

Achilles let out a sob. “Yes, dear one. You have saved us. Saved all of us.”

Patroclus gave him a weak smile. “Be safe, my Achilles. I will see you in a next life.”

His words were whispered out into the universe, gods and goddesses alike listening to the ringing truth of the promise.

Achilles let his tear roll freely in the middle of the battlefield. “Not yet, my dear Patroclus. You must stay with me. You swore to age by the sea with me.”

Patroclus gave him a smile, but his eyes held an unfathomable sadness and pain.

“Perhaps in another life, my dear. Perhaps in another life.”

And so Achilles (who would become Jason) wept in the middle of a battlefield for Patroclus (who would become Nico) and when Achilles ran into battle, thrashing and slicing and cleaving and yelling with a vengeance that was not his own, it was Patroclus’s name he shouted. And when Paris finally hit him with a bow, right in the heel, and his world flooded with pain and agony, it was Patroclus’s name he whispered as he fell to the ground.

 **  
**  
  
  


It was 1592 when Jason would see Nico again.

Hades had instructed Nico that reincarnation would take quite a long time, and while he waited in the underworld he had looked for Jason, then Achilles. But to no avail he had not seen him before his reincarnation.

Jason was born in that century as James Edwards, the son of a merchant, who had sent his second born son to the New World in search of gold as the colonists had been so fond of saying they could find. James arrived to the New World and it was terrifying. It was wild, uncharted, and truly something James would never be able to fathom. He traveled west, travelling well beyond what any rational man would and he was determined to find all the riches his father had ordered him to collect.

He arrived, after three months of traveling aimlessly to the west, upon a desert town. The people there wore sheared skins of animals, had weapons that looked crude at best, and half of them walked around nearly naked.

The people themselves had tanned skin, skin so tanned and brown that for some it looked nearly red to him. The had long black hair and the women wore baskets on their backs with children in them. A peculiar sight indeed!

He gasped loudly from where he had been hiding in the corn. The village people turned to him in surprise.

He motioned to back away, intended to run, but the way these people stared at him, as though he was foreign, as though he was savage, it entranced him. He threw his weapon to the side and got up, attempting to look dignified.

“Hello. I am James Edwards, second son of the Edwards’ Westminster Fishing Company.”

The Indians, as that Christopher Columbus fellow had taken to calling them, looked at him in rapt curiosity, but none of them seemed to understand what he said.

He looked around frantically. “Please, is there someone here who understands me?”

A boy, well, a young man really, walked forward, the group of people giving way for him as he walked up to the strange man, with the white skin. Many men had passed who had dressed like him, talked like him, but Cheveyo (who would become Nico) did not understand them. Cheveyo was named as a spirit warrior, when the ancestors had spoken of his fate, meant to live many lives beyond just his as it happened, and he would fight many great wars. Cheveyo had seen many men like the strange one that stood before him, but none with so compelling blue eyes. They looked as if they possessed the spirit of the moon itself. So enchanting.

The boy did not say anything, but simply examined James raptly. James looked at him and noticed why. He too began to feel something. The longer he stared the more familiar this Indian warrior looked. His dark black hair was tied back, but it looked to be long, and his tan skin was marred with scars from what James could only presume to be battles. Battles James would never understand or partake in.

“Can you understand me?” James said, enunciating every word.

The strange man’s words seemed garbled, but their souls connected. Cheveyo felt it, felt it as he felt the spirits of his ancestors.

Cheveyo nodded in frustration, wanting so badly to understand this important stranger.

The village Elders came and led him away and to Cheveyo, he looked frantic, confused, lost.

It turned out that James would stay with them. It turned out that the village Elders had converse with people who had gone west and had taken to learning English for trade.

“You shall stay with us, until the next moon cycle is complete.”

James found that he didn’t mind, but that he wanted to see the young man again. Those dark brown eyes. James had seen them somewhere before.

“Of course. Although I do not have anything to trade with you.”

The Elders nodded. “As long as you bring good will.”

James nodded and looked over, seeing the strange young man peering at him through the opening of the stone hut.

The Elders turned to see him just as he vanished out of sight.

“It seems to me that Cheveyo has taken to you.”

James continued to stare at the entrance, slightly absorbed in the nagging feeling he got from the way that young man stared at him.

One of the Elders stood. “It would seem that you shall stay with him, then. He lives alone, though I am afraid he does not speak the language of you trespassers.”

James nodded as he was led away to meet the Indian. The Elders spoke in a tongue James did not recognize, all the while Cheveyo watched him warily as the Elders spoke to him. When they finished and walked away Cheveyo motioned for him to follow as Cheveyo walked through the dirt streets of houses, that much James could understand.

They walked into a simple and meager hut at what looked like the edge of their village. Cheveyo said something harshly and pointed to one bed that seemed unoccupied.

James looked at the cot with its net of animal skin. “That’s where I will sleep?”

Cheveyo looked at him, walking closer, and James should have felt in danger, but as the Indian came closer, James felt himself shiver.

The strange man Cheveyo did not understand stood as he walked forward. He felt compelled to this man, something about his strange skin and blue eyes. Cheveyo did not understand, but perhaps it was the meddling of his ancestors. They had meddled and now Cheveyo was drawn to this man. He could swear he’d seen those eyes.

James gulped as Cheveyo was a hair away from him.

Cheveyo leaned in and kissed him. Cheveyo had never laid with a man, but it was not uncommon in the village, for men to lay with men. And this stranger with pale skin and blue eyes, Cheveyo was drawn to him in ways he could not explain. He silently called upon the spirits to tell him who this man was.

James felt the Indian kiss him and felt electricity bolt through him. He sank into the kiss and when he pulled away the Indian muttered something.

“Please understand, the spirits say we are meant to be interconnected souls.” Cheveyo said, hoping the pale man understood, but the way his eyebrows furrowed seemed to him an indication that he did not.

James frowned in confusion. “I cannot understand you. But I feel as though I know who you are, as though we’ve met before.”

“I feel your spirit, but your native tongue is foreign to me.” Cheveyo said.

**  
**

The language barrier did hold them back from certain things. Cheveyo could not understand him, but knew they knew each other in the past lives his ancestors had spoken about. James talked only with the Elders while the other villagers watched him warily. No one knew about the love affair of James and Cheveyo, they kept that for the closed confines of the hut. Until Cheveyo went to the villagers and asked them to help him understand the foreign tongue.

“It is a tricky language, one that will set you apart from the others.” One of the Elders said.

Cheveyo nodded. “I want to speak with the pale man. To understand his tongue.”

The Elders nodded and soon they began to teach him the language. James stayed well beyond the first moon cycle. He stayed for more than three moon cycles. It became their life together, not saying words because they couldn’t, but drawn to each other inexplicably. James forgot completely about his father and his brothers.

They were resting beside a creek, the only one in the dry wastelands of the desert, when Cheveyo decided it would be time to show the pale man he was willing to speak in many tongues. He wanted to know who he was, what they were, why the spirits had tied them together.

He sat up abruptly and James did so as well.

He stammered. “M-m . . .”

James looked at him. “What is it, Cheveyo?”

Cheveyo shook his head in frustration and held his hand up. “My. . . n-n-name. . . i-is. . . Cheveyo. . . I-I am a s-s-spirit. . . w-warrior.”

The way the pale man grinned at him had been so rewarding. Cheveyo could swear he remembered that smile.

James grinned and let out a cheer. “You’ve done it! Brilliant!”

He grinned, giving the Indian a kiss as he attempted to have him teach him how to say his name in their native language. They sat by the creek, feet running through the water as they attempted to learn languages to communicate past something they both couldn’t begin to understand.

James stayed with them until he grew old. Cheveyo and James had stayed in that hut until the day Cheveyo was taken by the spirits. In which he learned of the way Hades had sworn them to meet again in their next lives. Cheveyo, who was Patroclus, waited patiently for Achilles, who was James. It was strange, knowing who and what he was. He waited with the spirits for James to come.

 **  
**  


It was 1864 the next time Jason would see Nico again. Henry Davis was the demigod son of Zeus. He was drafted into the Union when the Confederacy had broken away from the United States. And the children of Ares had certainly made a bang. The gods had divided, had split, and the children of the gods had taken their sides, but it went beyond that. Henry saw the way children of Ares and children of Hermes had looked down on the mortals, especially the black ones. Henry knew many colored people, and differentiating them, it would kill them, and people like him, white people, evil demigods, they would kill them. The gods had their own agendas, but so did the children of the gods.

Henry was on a mission with Renaldo, both only twenty and never having left the confines of the camp where they trained, but Renaldo was strong, having trained as he fought his way to the northern states to escape enslavement in Texas. He was tall, with dark brown hair and eyes, and a fierceness that Henry had grown to trust, because it would protect him in a fight (He will discover in the afterlife that Renaldo was actually Reyna, which would make sense in far too many ways). Renaldo was the son of a woodland nymph and a mortal man.

They were to help a group of enslaved demigods into the Union territory and then take them to Camp Half-Blood, which was currently an hour away from Washington D.C.

Renaldo and Henry waited for nightfall, at the border of Tennessee, when they finally saw a flash of a lantern from a few miles away. Flanked with Henry’s best friend, Peter, and a satyr, they rushed forward and ran into the group.

It was two young woman and a young man.

Renaldo and Peter aided the two girls while the satyr watched for any spies, and for a moment Henry stalled. The boy with dark skin, skin almost as black as the night itself, had brown eyes Henry couldn’t stand to look at.

Isingoma, which was the man’s name, stared back at the white man. He looked different from the ones he had encountered before. The white men from before had whips, and they beat his sisters. He hated those men. The white man paused in front of him and for some reason Isingoma was entranced as well, eyes so blue, so clear, eyes that looked like the skies of the fields he had known his whole life.

“Henry, hurry! I think I saw someone!” The satyr, Kellin, whispered in alarm.

Renaldo and Peter rushed the girls to the boat they had by the magically stream Chiron had asked Poseidon to bless for them, to make their getaways better.

Henry looked at the young man. “Follow us. We’re here to help you.”

Isingoma didn’t understand what the white man had said, but he nodded, because evil people didn’t speak in voices as soft as the clouds themselves.

When Henry looked back to find the Marshalls beginning to chase after them he struck several of them down with lightning, the ones left, fled away in fear.

Isingoma saw his eyes crackle with raw energy and knew what that was. It was the type of magic his mother had mentioned, the type of energy that gods and ancient things possessed. Yet Isingoma did not feel fear. He felt relief as they huddled on the boat and drifted on a river that Isingoma had never seen despite traveling these woods many times. His sister turned to him and he smiled, a foreign thing he had never used before.

“We are safe now.”

They smiled and drifted towards as Camp Half-Blood as Henry looked at the young man smile, it tugged at something in Henry. It felt right to see him smile. It was a simple pleasure, after all.

Isingoma woke up to find the same white man who had taken him away from slavery standing by the food of his bed. Beside him stood a man who was was half man and half horse.

Isingoma’s eyes widened. “What is going on here?”

The half horse man looked at him sympathetically, as though he had a lot of experience with people telling him that. The white young man turned to the half horse man and spoke in a language Isingoma recognized from the tongues of his masters. _Former masters._  The white young man had saved him from that. They turned to Isingoma and the half horse man came and stood beside him.

“You are safe now. You are free from slavery, and you are welcome to stay here, with us.”

The half horse man spoke his tongue while a bit choppy, Isingoma trusted him, and nodded.

“What is this place?” He looked around at the cabinets of windows of glass, like the ones his former masters had in their house, except that here they held what looked like strange glass bottles of remedies like his mother had made. In the large houses there was only glass plates.

The half horse man waved to the things outside of his window. “This is Camp Half-Blood, and I am Chiron.”

Isingoma nodded.

Chiron bowed in front of him. “I am the trainer of heroes.”

Isingoma nodded and nodded his head in respect. “I am Isingoma, my father gave me the power of necromancy.”

Chiron bowed. “I know. Your father is our Greek god, Hades.”

Isingoma processed everything. “A god. My father, with a son who lived his whole life as a servant.”

Chiron looked at him sadly. “Isingoma, please understand, the gods are very troubled currently. A war is being waged.”

Isingoma nodded, decided it best to let well enough alone. He turned to the young white man who stood at the foot of the bed, looking at them in confusion.

“Who is he, who saved me?”

Chiron turned to the man and waved him over. Chiron patted him on the back.

“This is Henry Davis, son of Zeus.”

Henry bowed and it was the first time a white man had ever shown Isingoma any sign of respect. Isingoma looked at him better in the daylight. His eyes were blue, a light and deep sky blue, the ones his mother sang about in the fields. And his hair was golden, Isingoma had never seen hair that looked like the rays of rising sun. Henry Davis. It was a white man’s name, but it seemed wrong to Isingoma, it was not his true name.

“Are you sure that is his name?” Isingoma asked, quietly, as he turned to Chiron.

Chiron turned to the young man and they discussed something. Chiron pointed to him and turned.

“I am afraid so. Why do you ask?”

Isingoma felt it, felt the pull of spirits. It felt as though his spirit was pulled by Henry’s.

“I feel his spirit tied to mine. Our souls, they are older than we know.”

Chiron furrowed his brow and Henry turned to Chiron.

“Chiron, what is he saying?”

Chiron turned to him, as though he was looking at him for the first time. “He says your souls are tied. You are a reincarnation, Henry.”

**  
**

Chiron left for a week to find out more about this, in which time Henry discovered that Isingoma’s two sisters spoke a little English, but their brother didn’t speak any.

Renaldo sat on the benches of the first row of the arena while he sparred. “So you’re soulmates?” His accent was heavy and sarcastic.

Henry rolled his eyes. “I suppose so. Though I can’t imagine why Hades would have done such a thing. I know that boy.”

Renaldo nodded. “And have you talked to him?”

Henry turned to him. “And say what? I do not understand him, you know that.”

Renaldo waved his hand flippantly. “His sisters. They have been inseparable. And the girls know a bit of English.”

Henry slashed at the dummy. “I suppose so.”

When Henry approached the three siblings they were alone at dinner. No one wanted to be near them, three children of Hades and the rest of the campers, it wasn’t a good mixture.

The two girls smiled at him.

“Hello.” He said amiably.

They waved at him with wide smiles. One of the girls had caramel colored skin and her curls, which just a few days ago had been nappy and knotted and gnarly, now bounced perfectly on her shoulders, the color of cinnamon. The other girl was tan, but it was easy to tell she was not completely white either. Her hair was different from her brother and sister’s, her hair had a loose silkiness but still had an aggressive amount of curliness.

The girl with cinnamon colored hair smiled at him. “Hello. My name is Hadiya.” Her name was simple, but she smiled and her eyes were bright, and they looked like hazel. Her accent was thick, but Jason liked it. (Hadiya would become Hazel, always hazel eyes and a kind spirit.)

The second sister smiled at him. “I am Bahati.” She would later become Bianca.

Henry loved their lovely voices. “I am pleased to meet you, misses. Although, I must say I come here with urgent news.”

The sisters leaned forward, and Isingoma watched on warily.

Henry looked at Isingoma. “It has been said that I am to be your brother’s soul mate.”

Bahati nodded. “Yes, it was spoken of by my mother and father. We all have a heavy connection with the spirits of the underworld.”

Henry leaned forward in interest. “And how would that work?”

Bahati shrugged and Hadiya continued. “It was spoken of, is all we know. We are mortals, it is not our business to know.”

Isingoma watched his sister converse with the one named Henry and they turned to him simultaneously. His sisters looked at him, speaking in the only tongue he understood.

“He says he wishes to speak with you.” Bahati spoke softly to him.

Isingoma nodded. “No. Never. Not to the likes of his kind. Not after what they’ve done to us, you should know better than to speak to them.”

Bahati give him a sympathetic look, but turned to the one named Henry.

She sighed. “He will not speak to you. He says it is because of the people who enslaved us.”

Henry frowned, turned to the man named Isingoma and gave her a brief look. “May you translate all that I say, to him?”

Hadiya and Bahati nodded.

Isingoma looked at the one named Henry, was startled by the way his eyes made direct contact with his.

He spoke in a garbled tongue Isingoma knew but didn’t.

Bahati translated. “He said that he would rather he die at the hands of an enemy, than belittle your worth. He says we are all together, all the only family we will ever truly need, and that things like skin, he says, those things that separate the mortals, he says he will not allow such a petty thing to separate us, too.”

Isingoma stared at him, saw the fierce honesty in his eyes, and knew it was an old wisdom that lay beyond them. They were bright, and for a long time their cluster of workers on the plantation had always seen the white men as ugly, savage in their greed and violence, but Henry Davis looked different, felt different. Henry Davis was a driving force for the good. And Isingoma thought him beautiful.

“Tell him his eyes are beautiful.” He said, quietly never looking away from the man he knew past his years on this earth.

Bahati said a garbling of words and Henry Davis turned as red as the sunsets of skies. Isingoma fell in love with him.

Henry Davis was a driving force for the good. So when, two months later, as he and the entirety of Camp Half-Blood went to war with the half that had succeeded he was at the head. Isingoma was right at his side, although the two could never get past the language barrier, what with so little time and so much training to be done. Isingoma was at his side because he loved him, but he doubted the boy with golden skin could understand. Bahati understood, and she giggled every time she saw them together.

Henry was a driving force for the good. Which is why he got shot.

He bled out right beside Isingoma, and Bahati.

Henry looked up at the sky once again, and Isingoma knew this, knew how it ended, because he had been here before.

“Isingoma. Isingoma. Cheveyo.” He muttered.

Bahati looked between them.

Henry took a tight hold of Isingoma’s hand. “I love you. I have always loved you, since I saw you.”

Bahati turned to Isingoma. “He says he has loved you, for as long as he has known you he has loved you.”

Isingoma wept, wept harder than he had even when the masters of his former home had beaten him mercilessly. “Tell him that I have! Tell him that I know his spirit, that I have always loved it!”

Bahati turned to Henry. “Henry, he says he loves your spirit, that he has always loved it.”

Henry let out a chuckle, but it was muffled by the blood that began to spill from his mouth. “Translate for me quickly, Bahati.”

Bahati nodded frantically, her eyes wide.

He cradled Isingoma’s face. “I love you, my dear. I shall see you in the next life if Hades permits it. I shall see you without the bloodshed of war, and the chains of racism weighing us down. I will grow old with you in the hut as I promised.”

Bahati translated the words frantically, afraid she could not say them in time. Isingoma nodded, tears filling his eyes, unable to restrain the agon of being ripped from his love once more.

Isingoma began to speak, knowing Bahati would translate it for him. “Yes, my dear. The hut by the sea, with only our love. I shall see you soon, but I do so hate to say goodbye to you. It is my only sorrow.”

Bahati had tears in her eyes as she translated.

Henry nodded. “Good-bye, my life, my love. Soon. Please come to me. I do so hate to wait.”

Isingoma kissed him, for the first time he kissed him and it tasted like sweat and iron.

“I shall. I shall hurry.”

And Henry Davis died, his golden skin melting away and his eyes no longer bright, but vacant. Isingoma cried over his body, looked on at the fighting, all the death, and the pure mayhem and sorrow this war had wrought and he kissed Henry’s forehead before he stood and walked through the battlefield. His shadows swirled around him, the earth cracked and gave mighty thunderous shakes as he summoned the army and power his father had bestowed upon him. All warriors ceased fighting, were too stunning by the show of ultimate power. He was one of the Elder gods son’s, and he was the only one left.

He screamed and the sound shook them, shook them all, and the skeleton warriors emerged, fighting and slashing and really there had been no contest there, because they had killed his love, his Henry, who, somewhere, somehow, had promised to grow old with him by the sea. A sea Isingoma had yet to see. They took it because of their petty war, the one he remember Henry mentioning he didn’t want to have to fight to begin with. Those confederates had brought it upon themselves. Enslave him and beat him, he would begrudgingly accept because he had been powerless, but they had killed his love itself, and they would pay.

It was no wonder the Union won the Civil War by a landslide.

When Henry Davis died, it was not Jason, it was Nico. Nico who had been the golden boy, who had defended his rights and his people’s rights with all he had until it had killed him.

Nico sat in the fields of Asphodel and waited for a while.

Isingoma left Camp Half-Blood the day the war was declared over. He stayed in a hut by the lake in Long Island Sound.

 **  
**  


The next time Jason saw Nico was 1941 in Paris, France.

Jason was named Jason this time, thankfully, and had retained all the memories this time. It had been a special gift from Hades for avenging his son’s death. Jason was grateful for that.

Unfortunately Jason had never been reincarnated into anything but English speaking people, and while he retained the Ancient Greek of Achilles, which helped him when he found out about the Greek demigods, it was of very little use in Paris, where he had been deployed for only a week. He was deployed, currently, to France. It felt as though it was the eve of war, and Jason would be ready for it.

He was strolling along the Seine river when he saw a show advertising scat singers and decided to go in.

The waiter led him away to a table and he watched the trio. It was him.

Right at the center, singing in a brilliantly silky tone, was Nico. Or the young man who would become Nico. He stood at about five and a half feet, with slicked black hair and brown eyes, and his words, obviously French, were accompanied by a smirk and two beautiful looking canaries. Jason nearly swooned like those girls at the corner table had. The men salivated at the look of those two canaries, the beautiful women singing just as smooth as the man did. Beside the man stood a jaguar with a jeweled collar, the jaguar was jet black.

When the set was finished he went up to him. “That was a mighty good tune you got playing there.”

The man simply stared at him, eyes obviously confused. “ _Et qui es-tu?_ ” (Translation: And who are you?)

Jason furrowed his brow. “You don’t understand me again, do you?”

The singer continued to look at him until he called, “Beatrice!”

The girl, Beatrice, who was taller than him, with legs as far the eye could see, wearing a flapper dress and that bob cut Jason saw all the girls at home wearing, walked over to them. Jason knew this was Bianca.

She turned to the singer.

Adrien turned to her, unable to understand the blonde man in the charming officer’s uniform. “Tell me, _cherie_ , who is he?”

Beatrice grinned knowingly at him and turned to the blonde man. Her accent was heavy, but Jason understood it.

“Pardon, my brother, he does not speak English. May I ask who you are?”

Jason looked between them, as the young man grinned at him. Jason fought the blush that rose in his cheeks.

“I am Jason Grace. I am a Lieutenant in the United States Marines Corps.”

Beatrice turned to Adrien. “He said he is an officer. An American officer.”

Adrien looked at her with wide eyes. “An American. Beatrice, they said that the Americans would not arrive for some time.”

Beatrice nodded. “Yes, but if they have arrived, we must find out what he knows. The Resistance will not like this.”

Beatrice turned to Jason, who was the worried look in Nico’s eyes, but couldn’t comfort him, because he couldn’t remember, hell, he couldn’t even understand Jason.

“Jason Grace, we must speak with you. We have much to talk about.”

It turned out that being an American officer sent to look out for threats the impending war was a secret not so easily kept when the first people you talked to happened to be French Resistance spies.

Somehow Jason wasn’t surprised that they had gotten into this mess.

They had all settled into their apartment by the Seine, the Jaguar lounging beside them, and the other canary sitting on the other side of the boy who was Nico.

Beatrice introduced them as soon as she settled. “This is my brother, Adrien. He was the one who began this.”

Adrien noticed her mention his name and waved languidly from his spot on one of the luxurious couches. Jason tried to forget the way they had been in Ancient Greece.

Jason nodded, visibly gulping. “Right. And does he speak English?”

Adrien nodded. It frustrated him to no end by now. Beatrice had spoken with him, had understood those Americans, and she had even made him laugh on their way here. But he had not liked that. He wanted for the American to laugh at his jokes, to converse easily with him. Adrien found the American compelling in a new, fascinating way. It felt as though Adrien knew him from some place. Adrien felt drawn to him. Granted, Adrien felt drawn to the many men who came passing through Paris looking for a good time.

Jason sighed. _Not again._ “Well can you translate something for me?”

Beatrice nodded.

Jason looked over at Adrien shyly. “Tell him, I remember him from a dream. It- I. . . I know who he is.”

Beatrice furrowed her brow but told him anyway.

“The American, he says he knows you.” She said, in rapid French.

Adrien waved a hand, waving off the notion. “Many men say they know me.”

“He says it was from a dream.”

Adrien snorted and turned to the American. “ _Vous aurez à faire beaucoup mieux que cela, officier_.”

He waggled his eyebrows flirtatiously, and Jason blushed but turned to Beatrice. “What did he say?”

Beatrice giggled a bit, but continued. “He said you will have to do much better than that, officer.”

Jason turned to Adrien, and looked at him in shock. Never before in their other lives had Nico been so outgoing and flirtatious. It was the 30’s. Things couldn’t be that liberal. But then again, this was France, and anything that happened behind closed doors certainly wasn’t hidden, but it wasn’t talked about either.

“Your brother-”

Beatrice held up a hand. “Please, I know, he is an undeniable flirt. It is his affliction.”

Jason nodded and began again. “Anyway, you are parts of the French Resistance.”

The other canary who hadn’t said her name yet sat up. “Of course, officer. We know there is a war coming, we aren’t stupid. And we will be ready for it.”

Jason nodded, and the dark skinned girl with her hair pinned down grinned at him. “This is Beatrice and Adrien, and I am Helaine, and we will gladly help you.”

As it turned out, staying with them was easier than it should have been. He went to his commanding officer, told him about the Resistance members, and when Jason asked if he could say with them for optimum intel the CO agreed. Jason was relieved, partially because for the first time since having gone on missions for Camp Half-Blood he was doing something useful, but mostly because he’d get to see Adrien again.

When he arrived to their flat with his one suitcase in hand Beatrice grinned at him.

“It has only been a week and Adrien cannot stop going on about having you here.”

Jason smiled at her, and noticed that Adrien lounged in a chair by the window that outlooked all of Paris. You could even see the Eiffel Tower.

“I shan’t hope I disappoint him. It’d be quite the trouble.”

Beatrice glanced back at Adrien and grinned mischievously. “You’ll find my brother to be easily pleased with you.”

Jason blushed.

One month later they were running. Jason wasn’t sure what had happened but they were running from a Harpy and ran up to the room of the parlor Adrien, Beatrice, and Helaine sang at. They were at the top, trying to retrieve a file on information from an unknown source. Beatrice, Helaine, and Adrien had managed to make it to the top until Jason gotten caught by the Harpy’s talons, screaming and clawing at him until he fought his way free. He crawled up the stairs, only to be met with the barrel of a gun.

A man stood at the center of the rooftop, grinning at them sadistically. Helaine and Beatrice whimpered as the man laughed. An image flashed in Jason’s head. Hector. This was Hector. He would kill Adrien, Patroclus, Cheveyo, Isingoma. _No. **Not again**_ **.**

Hector smiled. “It really was too easy finding out this location.” His accent wasn’t French. It was German. Figures Hector would be a country-betraying, secret-selling Nazi.

He wandered over to where one of his henchman held a knife to Adrien’s throat. This Adrien, the one in danger, he didn’t look charming, or suave, or witty. He looked scary. He looked fierce. He looked like home.

“And when I heard Adrien here had taken a liking to the American, why I just couldn’t stand it!”

Jason looked at him, walking forward slowly, still feeling the cold press of a gun to his back. “Whoever you are, the Nazi are going to pay you for that intel yes? We could pay you more.”

Hector spat at him. “It isn’t about the money, you cretin. It’s about the respect. No one respects us!”

“Starting a war you’ll never win isn’t the answer.” Jason tried to appeal, calmly.

Hector snarled at him. “With our Führer we cannot possibly lose.”

Jason looked at Beatrice and Helaine, they were no longer whimpering, but glowering. Jason knew they already had a plan to get themselves free and protect the information.

Jason waited for Hector to pause and then shouted. “Now!”

Beatrice and Helaine turned and roundhouse kicked their captors, while also arming themselves with the guns as Jason turned and broke the wrist of the man trying to threaten him. Adrien appeared at his side right in time for Hector to turn around in shock.

“ _Qui es-tu?!_ ” Beatrice shouted at him. (Translation: Who are you?!”)

Hector laughed, and walked a little closer to Adrien and Jason. “You know who I am.”

Adrien did. Adrien had never seen this spy before in his life, but he knew that cold laugh, and those cold eyes. Something about this man was familiar, and not in a way he wanted to find out.

Hector sneered at them. “Filthy, lying with other men like you do.”

Jason watched him carefully, waiting for him to draw his gun.

“Although, I can’t complain much, as you’ll be dead soon.”

And when Hector reached for his gun and a lot of things happened at once. First and foremost, Jason jumped in front of the line of fire in front of Adrien. Secondly, Jason’s gun fell to the ground. Thirdly, Beatrice and Helaine both shot Hector’s hand, and held him down as they tied him up.

Fourthly, and lastly, Jason lay on the ground, his body convulsing as he lose blood from the gunshot wound in his chest.

Adrien looked down in horror. Too soon. Something in his mind kept nagging him now, saying it was too soon, too soon for this. Adrien had seen this before.

Jason motioned for them to gather. Jason turned to Beatrice. “Tell him. You know what I will ask you to tell him, tell him.”

Beatrice nodded, tears swimming in her eyes.

She turned to Adrien. “He says he loves you.”

Jason nodded, hearing something of the words he knew from common phrases.

Adrien turned to her. “He cannot die like this! We can call an ambulance!” He said it frantically, trying to apply pressure to the wound as Jason gasped for air.

Helaine nodded. “You know they will not arrive here in time, Adrien.”

He looked at them frantically, still subconsciously applying pressure to the wound.

“We must do something!”

They both nodded, looking down and crying for their fallen friend.

“Tell him I love him, Beatrice.” Adrien said frantically.

He turned to Jason eyes swimming with agony and Jason, breathing his last breaths couldn’t stand the way he always looked in agony, except that one time in the desert. He wanted that, he wished they could go back to that.

“ _Je t’aime! Je t’aime!_ ” He heard Adrien say frantically in between his sobs.

Jason stopped the hands that pushed on his chest, as though Adrien was trying to force his energy and life into Jason, physically willing him to live. In another lifetime, Jason might have lived, but not this one.

“Tell him he has a lovely voice.”

Adrien was sobbing, and shaking, and he hated how he couldn’t understand the beautiful words that fell from his American’s lips.

Beatrice sobbed as well as she spoke. “He says, he says you have a lovely voice.”

Adrien looked down at him and tried to smile through his tears. Patroclus. Cheveyo. Isingoma. Adrien. It had taken him so long to see him, see his soul for what it was. Jason had missed that soul.

Adrien turned to her. “Tell him I will miss his voice.”

Beatrice nodded. “My brother says he will miss yours.”

Jason felt himself begin to slip even more, faster now. His body shook with convulsions.

“Tell him. . . to never. . . stop. . . singing.” He gasped out.

His body shook and went still.

Adrien looked at the golden hair and the deep blue eyes of the American. Gone. Beatrice turned to him.

“He,” she sobbed harder, “he said you must never stop singing.”

Adrien stopped singing that same day.

He sang again when the war was over. And he died the day after it ended too.

 **  
**  


The year was 2014.

Jason Grace and Nico di Angelo were sitting on the dock, laughing at the way Percy had accidentally turned over his canoe and had not gotten a single drop on his, but Annabeth was soaking wet. They laughed and laughed and although it felt light Jason had wanted to say something he could never admit, and Nico wanted to say something he could never admit.

Mnemosyne watched them carefully, when Hades appeared.

“It is time.”

She looked at him. “Are you sure? This will be their last cycle if we choose to let them both keep the memories.”

Hades nodded. “Yes. The have endured many great wars together, both ours, and theirs. . . Besides that blasted son of Jupiter will never get around to it if we don’t. Remember 1935? He hadn’t told him till he was dying on the floor. Can’t have a repeat of that.”

Mnemosyne nodded and waved a hand over their figures as she say them through the mist.

**  
**

Jason gasped and Nico gasped and they turned to each other.

“Achilles.” Nico said, in wonderment.

“Adrien.” Jason said, and his eyes began to fill with tears.

“We-” Nico said, cut off by his own amazement.

Jason nodded, his eyes filled with happy tears as he threw himself at Nico, pulling him into a tight hug.

“I thought I was never going to see you again after the last time!”

Nico rolled his eyes, but his own eyes also began to sting with the moisture brought on by his heavy emotions.

“You never were good at waiting for me.”

Jason smiled at him and kissed him fiercely. “I missed you so many times.”

Nico let his tears run down his face. “We don’t have to do that anymore. No more of that. We’ll stay together this time.”

Nico leaned into their next tear stained kiss until they heard cheering from Percy across the lake and then a huge whistle.

Nico and Jason knew what was next. Jason gripped him tight, fully convinced he’d never let Nico go again.

Suddenly Leo and Piper and Hazel and Reyna all emerged from the bushes behind them, accompanied by other campers.

Reyna grinned at them. “You know what happens next, don’t you?”

They gripped each other tight as the campers lifted them up and carried them to the dock.

“Nico, do you trust me?” Jason said over the roar of cheering from the campers.

Nico nodded.

The moment the campers tossed them Jason yanked Nico close and shot them up into the air. The air rushed past their faces and Nico laughed. It was a bubbly laugh, like the one Adrien had saved only for Jason once upon a lifetime ago.

They kissed in the air as a flurry of clouds touched them and surrounded them.

The campers looked up at them in disdain. Nico let out a laugh, feeling his happiness bubble inside of him. All that trouble, and now they were here, they were happy, they were finally home.

Jason grinned at him. “Does that mean you can speak the languages?”

Nico rolled his eyes, but let out a small chuckle. Below them the campers boo’d.

Nico looked down at them. “I suppose we should follow the tradition.”

Jason lowered them enough that the fall wouldn’t hurt them. As they dove into the ocean Nico let out another bubble of laughter and gripped Jason’s hand tight as they broke the surface of the water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *dumps this reincarnation au here and let's my brain charge for two days* wow okay so this was wayyyyyyyyy longer than I meant it to be, but here it is! Please take it away from me now.
> 
> If I offended anyone, or portrayed a culture wrong please let me know, and how to fix it, and I will!


	4. The King and The Lionheart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So AO3 user sharlatan asked for an AU and I hoped I did it justice! Also your author would like to clarify that she has no idea how monarchs from the medieval times work (or the era in general) and she watched way too much Game of Thrones and Merlin to get this story to a somewhat believable point.   
> Oh and the author would also like you to consider Merlin and Arthur as Nico and Jason because it is her irresistible headcanon and she will support it with her dying breath.

**Prompt:** _"Oh can I[request](http://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Inebriated_Literary_Virtuoso/inbox#) a jasico royal au where jason is the prince of a kingdom who falls in love with the knight nico, except just when things are going well its found that nico is the bastard child of the ruler of another country?"_ au

 

* * *

**  
  
**

**_Taking over this town they should worry,_ **

**_But these problems aside I think I taught you well._ **

Jason stood alone in the throne room. The cold stones and their grey tones stared back at him as he sat at his father’s stead. His robes felt heavy on him, weighing him down just like his responsibilities and the inevitable coronation to come in three years time. He knew he’d be a good king, he’d be smart, wise, better than his father and their famine ridden peasants he didn’t care about.

He listened to Jupiter tell the peasant he could not save his farm, and Jason felt something akin to pity, beyond it, helplessness. He wondered if being king meant you should say no to everyone who didn’t wear the garments you wore, didn’t live the same as you.

The man felt and once the large oak doors of the Throne Room slammed shut Jupiter sighed.

“Out with it, boy. What is it now?”

Jason looked at his father cautiously, years of training, a slap or two, and etiquette training had forced him to hesitate.

Jupiter, in his bulking form, red King’s robes and his golden crown on his head, looked at him with one thick black eyebrow raised.

Jason let out a tiny breath. “Sire, we have the means to help that man and his villagers. Our funds could spare it and-”

Jupiter turned his head forward and sighed. Jason knew that sigh, it had become his constant companion these last years. He was disappointed. Again.

“How many times must I tell you? We cannot supplement all our funds for every peasant plight we are to encounter. You shall surely run our funds dry should you become king.”

Jupiter tisked.

“May I be excused, sire?” Jason said, between gritted teeth.

Jupiter nodded and Jason practically flew from the room. He pushed open the oak doors, letting them close with a slam behind him. He took off his robes, giving them to some guard that stood in the hallways, and ran after the old man. He was just outside the castle gates when Jason, mounted on a horse approached him.

“Good sir!”

The man jumped out of his skin and turned and bowed. Jason hated the bowing, most of all. “My lord. How may I service you?”

Jason hopped off his horse and helped the man to his feet. “I do not require you to bow. Now, it is not about your service to me. I must ask, how I may be of service to you?”

The man gasped and nodded. “No, no, my lord. I am not. . . I am not worthy of your help.”

Jason frowned. “Sir, I am just as worthy to work as you are, in fact I am more able. I have ordered a group of knights for the ready. Where do you live?”

The man nodded quickly. “Please, my lord, I did not mean to trouble you! I shall manage.”

Jason nodded, calling over the knights. “You shall get the plowing tools ready on a kart, and give me five horses.”

The man looked at him in shock. “My lord! Five horses-”

Jason held up a hand. “Shall surely manage plowing a field for a day.”

The man looked nearly ready to cry, and he bowed again, with great difficulty. “My lord, I can never repay you, but with my promise of servitude.”

Jason nodded. “I am not looking for payment. Now, mount with me, and show me where you live.”

The guards searched the old man before he was mounted beside Jason.

Perseus looked at him. “Sire, your father won’t be too pleased about this.”

Jason looked at him. “And when have you given a damn if my father will be pleased?”

Perseus grinned widely at him. “Never. I just assure you I shan’t regret following you, displeasing your father is my favorite pastime.”

Jason smiled. “As it is mine.”

They finished plowing three hours earlier than normal. The man had sat by as they plowed, easily going through his field and gathering all the wheat he had needed.

When they finished, barely sweating, the man proceeded to thank them profusely.

“My lord! You are truly benevolent! I thank you so much!”

Jason smiled and shook his hand. “Sir, it is not to be borne. I am simply happy to help you in any way I could.”

The man smiled kindly at him and watched their hands shake in wonder, as if he could not believe a man as elevated at Jason had touched him. “You shall make a fine king one day, my lord. My family and I will would be forever loyal under you.”

Jason smiled at him and called his knights to mount and pack up. He waved at the man and his family as he rode away, then he saw Perseus toss them something. The man’s wife fainted.

He rode up next to Jason.

“What did you give the poor family, Perseus?” Jason asked, mirth in his eyes.

Perseus shrugged. “The woman, she reminded me of my mother. I gave them twenty silver pieces.”

Jason smiled.

Perseus grinned at him. “Did you hear his remark? You shall make a great king.”

Jason nodded, it felt good to help, but his father’s disappointed eyes lingered in his mind.

Perseus smiled and looked at him. “It will be fine, sire. You will make a great king. One of the greatest kings of the ages!”

Jason hoped he’d learned well.

**_That we won't run, and we won't run, and we won't run._ **

**_That we won't run, and we won't run, and we won't run._ **

Don’t go into the woods, they had said. Dark forces linger there. Nico was never once to listen either way. He was running through the forest, voices shouting behind him as he walked as fast as his feet could carry him. His armor weighed him down. The armor of a knight. The metal weighed down on him like the weight of his fears and sorrows and sadness. The crest engraved on the front of it only served to remind him of all the secrets he had discovered in so little a time. His mother had died recently, only a month ago, but Hades had ordered the boy to live in the castle. He was knighted, against his wishes, and he had been training. The transition from his meager but happy life as a peasant had been too fast, too false. Nico had good work, and now with only himself in their little house, he would have managed. He had been ordered to stay in the castle, only allowed to leave it when he was training with the other knights. But the woods had been there, so inviting, so ready to give him an escape from the life of an illegitimate son. Nico refused to live his entire life at the hand of his father. He had lived with his mother and sister just fine, and when Bianca left, they had still managed. Nico didn’t need this.

Nico ran, ran so far, well into the dark, and remembered his mother’s words.

“You musn’t run from that which will always be behind you. It will catch you, eventually. But you, my little lionheart, you are strong in ways none of us are.”

He ran, not because he was running away from his past, but because he needed to run to his future. A future devoid of princes and kings and knights and kingdoms and everything. He ran and got to a clearing. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been running. There were houses several yards away and they began to shout as they spotted him. The weight of the armor and the walk suddenly seemed to come down on him. The woods were thick, and somehow, he’d gotten all the way across them. He had seen the sunset twice while he was running but he could not tell you what day it was. He fell to the floor.

Jason heard shouts behind him and turned to see some villagers had chased them.

“Sire,” one of them cried, “A knight just fell! He’s fallen a little ways away from the forest.”

Jason furrowed his eyebrows, looked at all the knights, the correct number of them too, and turned to Perseus with his eyebrows furrowed.

Jason turned to them. “Take me to him.”

**_And in the winter night sky ships are sailing,_ **

**_Looking down on these bright blue city lights._ **

Nico woke up on a down bed. It was covered with silk sheets and as he opened his eyes groggily he looked over and saw a tapestry with a familiar crest on it. A royal crest.

Well fuck.

He looked around the room and found nothing else but regular furnishings along with a small table that had an assortment of food on it, along with ale.

Nico’s stomach grumbled as he walked over, his stomach giving him no ideas or ministrations for caution. He ate the breads and cheeses and fruits as he sat and looked around the room in confused curiosity. His armor was nowhere to be seen, which he could not tell was a blessing or a curse. He had been changed into a pair of trousers and a loose white shirt. The room itself had fine tapestries, thick curtains that hung over wide windows, and the stone held intricate carvings. But what Nico loved most was the view from his window. The sunset and he must have been in a tower, because just below him and out along the horizon the cities that surrounded the kingdom bustled. The hues of night that were slowly coming mixed with the vivid reds of the sky, and the bright lights from the windows of the small huts and buildings, and Nico could hear children shouting, and women talking, and the smell of the baker on the corner, and Nico missed home.

He continued to look out of the window, thinking of the smells of home, when the door opened. He didn’t turn to greet them, simply continued to stare out of the window as the person sat down across from him.

“The view is beautiful, I dare say.”

Nico nodded silently.

Jason watched the knight continue looking out of the window.

“Sir, may I ask why you were at the edge of the clearing?”

The knight turned to him and gave him a smile devoid of mirth or jest, it was empty. “There were many reason for why I was there, sire.”

Jason sputtered, “I’m-I’m not. . .”

The knight leaned forward and gave him a smirk this time. “Do you think I do not know royalty when I see it?”

Jason sighed and settled in his chair. “I suppose it would have been foolhardy of me to attempt at anonymity, yes?”

The knight nodded as he took a bite of bread. Jason took the instance of silence to look upon the knight. He was built, very well, with the white loose shirt fitting him rather well, and black hair was cut short, with part of it long enough that it covered his eyes when he looked down. His eyes, beside their emptiness looked to be a deep brown and his skin looked tanned. Jason privately thought of how handsome the stranger was.

The knight looked out of the window. “I shall very much like to go home, as soon as I am finished here.”

Jason’s eyes widened and he nodded his head rapidly. “No, you mustn't! My father, he has requested you come to him as soon as possible.” Jason had nearly forgotten his reason for being here.

Nico looked at the prince warily. “Your father, the king?”

Jason gulped, but nodded silently.

Nico waved his hand flippantly. “Let us go then.”

Jason nodded and they left the room. The guards at the door followed them until they were to the Throne Room. Jason was given his robes, and he tried not to feel too ridiculous in the robes in front of the stranger.

Nico followed the prince into the Throne Room where he was faced with a king. His robes were more elegant than his father’s, he’d admit, but no in the least intimidating. He bowed, until the king ordered him to rise.

“Give us your name, knight.”

Nico bowed his head as was expected. “I am Nico di Angelo, knight of the House of Hades, sire.”

Jupiter sniffed. “And what were you doing in our territory, sir di Angelo?”

Nico figured the truth would be the only thing he’d be able to work to his will. “I was running, sire.”

Jupiter quirked an eyebrow. “From what?”

Nico manipulated the truth a bit. “An animal that could not be controlled while I was hunting, sire.” This was technically true.

Jupiter looked at him. “And shall you need provisions to be sent home?”

Nico nodded. “Thank you, but no, sire, I shall not be needing them.”

Jupiter gave him a look. “Are you sure? Where will you be going?”

Nico nodded. “I do not know, sire.”

Jupiter grunted. “So you shall become a vagabond? That is not the proper life for a knight.”

Nico had heard those words before. “I live as I please, your majesty.”

Jupiter waved a hand dismissively. “Nonsense, I order you stay here and become part of my son’s guard.”

Nico had heard the first part too. He gritted his teeth. “I must decline, your majesty.”

Jupiter looked at him, shocked. “You dare turn down my offer when I graciously took you under my protection.”

“I never asked that of you, sire. I never asked for you to do that.” Nico glowered.

Jupiter scoffed. “Surely now I know, you ingrate! I did not have to, yet I did! You should be grateful!”

Nico looked up at him. “And should I also be so grateful that you have let more than a third of your people starve to the point they contemplated desertion and went to my lord for help? You simply aided me because my armor was on at the moment.”

Jupiter growled. “I am a fair and just king! I shall not hear of this treachery!”

He moved to call his guard, but Jason stopped him. “Sire, surely he is only upset. He has been unconscious for many days, give him pardon. I am sure he will gladly accept your offer at a later date.”

He looked at Nico, and Nico stared back at him, glaring, eyes lit with fiery passion.

Jupiter grunted and regarded the knight. “Very well, I shall concede your point, son. Do take him away from my sight. I tire of looking at him.”

Nico was about to say something about the King and right where he could shove his royal scepter when Jason dragged him out of the Throne Room and back to his room.

Jason closed the door and let out a long sigh.

“You should not argue with my father so.”

Nico glowered at him. “Royalty has done no great service to me. I shan’t hold my tongue for a man who has been given all that he desires for his entire life.”

Jason nodded his head. “My father’s life is exceeding difficult. He has many troubles.”

Nico scoffed. “Oh, I am sure, sire. It must bring him a great deal of hardship to choose what goblet to drink from, and which of his ales and wines he wishes to drink for dinner.”

Jason nodded his head. “My father-”

Nico glared at him. “Is like all kings I have met, do not argue with me, Jason Grace,” it was the first time Jason had ever heard someone say his name with vehement passion, “and you shall grow into those robes which so weigh you down, and you shall complete the never ending cycle of pompous, arrogant, selfish princes and kings.”

The words stung, surely, in ways Jason had never knew they could. It was what people from other kingdoms thought, common people, surely. But he remembered the way the man had looked at him, as though he was a savior, when all he’d done was help. A vicious cycle of pompous, arrogant, selfish princes and kings.

He nodded. “I am not like my father.”

Nico raised an eyebrow. “Tell me, sire, exactly how many times, beside the time you retrieved me from the edge of the woods, had you gone to help those in your kingdom. I made no jest when I spoke of your people’s desertion.”

Jason gave him a steadfast stare. “I go out at least two times in a month’s time. Sometimes more.”

Nico nodded. “And tell me, beside these instances, do you talk to the people of your kingdom? Do you consider your starving poor? Do you think of your ill? I noticed there is only one court physician, surely he cannot have to help all those outside of your gates. Tell me again, sire, how it is you care for your own people.”

Nico hadn’t meant to tear into the young prince, really, he had been quite nice, but Nico despised him on principle. Hades had told his mother he was different. Hades had helped a few peasants, thinking it earned him sainthood to simply do as one should. Jason reminded him in some ways of his father, and he despised it. He despised his kind of hero, the ones who left when they’d gotten what they wanted. Nico hadn’t meant to tear into the poor prince, but Nico couldn’t help it, couldn’t hold back the sharpness of his tone, and the coldness in his eyes.

Jason nodded, seemingly not shaken at all by his words. “I fear I do not know, di Angelo. I am most sure it is why you must stay with us and help me understand.”

Jason wanted to be better, had to be better. He could not stand the idea of another line of arrogant, selfish princes and kings.

Nico stood by the window, looking out at the little villages that lay just beyond the castle walls. He could smell the baker’s bread, and the women gossiping on the corner, and the children screaming. He looked back at Jason.

“I suppose you could do with the help.”

**_And they won't wait, and they won't wait, and they won't wait._ **

**_We're here to stay, we're here to stay, we're here to stay._ **

Nico stayed, accepted graciously on his knees in front of Jupiter as he smugly knighted him into their court. Jason had smiled on at him brightly and perhaps it had been worth it to see the Prince’s bright smile.

They got along swimmingly. Before anyone knew it, Nico di Angelo was in constant orbit around the prince. They ate together at almost every meal, when Nico was not pulled away by duties to others, or Jason was not required to eat with his father because of an honored guest. Thankfully those came few and far between each other.

Jason had grown fond of the knight. He had been hesitant at first to accept his role within their court but once he was comfortable, Jason realized, he poured every ounce of devotion into the duties he served as Jason’s royal guard. And it had been easy to befriend him, to talk with him and understand him and enjoy his company, because Nico felt as though he was a kindred spirit. Something in his eyes occasionally gave that away. And Nico felt it too. Jason, admittedly, was not like the princes and kings and lords and ladies he had met before. Jason bore no ill-will to those below him in rank, and helped all who needed it. Nico found it confoundingly easy to follow in Jason’s stead, and do so with the devotion he would afford to anything he wanted to do well.

They were the best of friends, easily. And privately, at night, when Jason could not find sleep, he thought of Nico, Nico in the sun, laughing, and Nico with pink cheeks and slightly drunk on ale, and then Jason would find sleep. He’d find it in brown eyes that smiled back at him and a shadow of some lost emotion he never seemed to dwell on for long.

They sat by the creek one day, their duties fulfilled for the day, and dressed in only their clothes. Jason ran his feet slowly through the water and it rippled, creating a scattered image of the sky above them.

He turned to Nico. “You never told me what you were running away when I first met you.”

Nico had been laying in the grass. His hands behind his head, and his face turned up at the sun.

“I told you and your father.”

“I don’t think you were telling the truth.”

Nico opened one eye and looked at him. “Do you doubt me, sire?”

Jason nodded. “No, but I do think you were not entirely honest.”

Nico closed his eyes and turned to the sky again. It had been many days since he’d felt the sun radiate on his skin. Before he had always been in the fields, working, but now he spent days inside, or on guard, or training. He hadn’t had time to stay outside and soak up the sun the way he used to.

“I was running away from home.” This was as much as he should have said.

Jason frowned. “But you were a knight.”

Nico turned to him and opened one eye again. “Your point, sire?”

Jason shrugged. “I suppose I always thought that people who were knights would love it. Knighthood is a valiant achievement after all.”

Nico turned his face to the sun, feeling the heat absorbed into his skin. “Perhaps not all of us strive for valiance, sire.”

Jason nodded slowly. “You didn’t want to be valiant? To have knighthood and live as a knight?”

Nico gave him a look. “If that were the case I would not be on your royal guard, do you think, sire?”

Jason nodded. “Very true, but then why run away?”

Nico sighed heavily. “My father wanted me to be things I could not allow myself to become.”

Jason nodded. “I understand.”

Nico gave him another suspicious look. “You do?”

Jason nodded, looking away from him and into the water that rippled and caused his reflection to become fragmented.

“My father is a king. Of course I understand becoming things you don’t want to be. It’s quite common, really.”

Nico nodded. “I too understand your plight. ‘Tis a sad state of affairs we must endure, sire.”

Jason nodded. “I mostly worry about the loyalty of my own people.”

Nico turned to him. “I hardly think that is a matter of import. Your subjects will gain a fair and just ruler, one who is ///truly/// just. They will be loyal under you.”

Jason nodded and spared him a cautious look. “And you will stay as my King’s Hand?”

Nico sat next to him and let out a sigh. He looked out over the water and through the forest and what lay beyond it.

“Of course. I was sworn under you, sire.”

Jason nodded. “No, I do not want you to serve me because you are obligated.”

Nico chuckled and looked at him. “I am by both parts obligation and friendship bound to protect you, sire. It is my fervent wish to protect you.”

Jason felt his insecurities quelled. “So you shall stay?”

Nico looked back to the forest, where beyond the vast expanse was a kingdom where Jason would rule. Jason Grace, who held all graces of someone of elevated rank with a kindness and compassion that reminded him of his mother. He had sworn to protect her, too.

“As long as you shall have me, sire.”

Jason wanted to tell him, in the privacy of the woods, with only the babbling of the creek and the birds and wildlife as his witness, that he’d always want Nico. He would become insufferably dependent because he knew how far gone he had been, he would always need him and he would have him for his entire life if he could.

**_Howling ghosts – they reappear_ **

**_In mountains that are stacked with fear._ **

Jupiter called in a session with Jason to discuss his future.

Jason was afraid.

Jupiter looked down at him coldly from his throne. His robes and crown were worn, but in front of his father he felt as though he’d presented himself in peasant garb from the look of disdain on his father’s face. That face had haunted Jason’s dreams.

Jupiter cleared his throat. “In two years you will become king of this land.”

Jason nodded silently.

Jupiter continued. “It has come to my attention that you are yet to be prepared for that responsibility.”

Jason looked at him. “Sire? I am-”

Jupiter held up a hand to stop him. “You are a naive boy. You show a disturbing lack of resolution and an even more alarming necessity to disregard my word. Is this who I shall leave this kingdom to?”

Beside him, a little ways away Perseus had his hand on his sword, and his knuckles were white. Jason knew he’d not be able to hold him back. Jason was thankful that Nico was not there, because his shift on guard had ended. He could be spared the embarrassment of being chided by his father.

Jason took a moment, breathed a deliberate breath, and looked at his father. “Father, I am more than adequate to run this kingdom. I am prepared for this role. It is all I have ever prepared for.”

Jupiter scoffed. “Please boy, do not lie to me. You go about tramping with those guards I have let you have, because I thought it best for your protection, but instead you do nothing but horseplay.”

Jason gritted his teeth. “That is not true, father, and you know that.”

Jupiter looked at him. “You show none of the makings of a king! You are careless. Who would be loyal under you, boy?”

Jason gulped. He’d had dreams like this one, and just like in his dreams his throat closed, and his stomach felt as though it had dropped, and his heart pounded.

Jupiter continued, rising from his chair, and somehow towered over Jason like a black, inescapable shadow.

“Do you think this kingdom which I have built would follow a child? That they would have the sense to follow you?”

Jason looked at him, hoping bitterly that he could fight back. “It is you they dissert, sire, not I.”

Jupiter sneered at him. “Be that as it is, do you think they will follow you, boy? You are a child. You do not understand what it is to act as king. You have been too sheltered, and now I am afraid I must find another heir.”

Jason looked at him. “I am the most compatible and formidable heir! I am deserving of that throne when it is mine to be seated on! I have worked tirelessly for years to be good enough in your eyes!”

Jupiter stared at him coldly. “I am not looking for good enough, you insolent boy. I am looking for the next great to king to follow in my place.”

Jason was poised to speak but behind him a voice rang.

“Oh, my majesty, do _shut up_.”

They both turned in shock to see Perseus standing there, face livid and stance ready for a fight.

Jupiter turned to him. “Excuse me?”

Perseus walked forward. “What I say is no treachery, and I mean it with the utmost respect, but you are no great king, your highness. You are ignorant, arrogant, and selfish. Your son, he shall be the one to usher in a great age for this kingdom, and it will be done not at the expense of all that you have built! You have done nothing but desomate all that you have come across! Even now your own people starve and dessert, and that is not the makings of a great king. You are a fool to think your son is not to be the greatest king this kingdom will be honored to have!”

Jupiter looked ready to kill him, and he could have too. “You are a rash boy, with only your title as my son’s second in command to protect you, you idiotic and crass boy. This is not your concern.”

Perseus glared back at him in equal measure. “I am to be involved in all of the prince’s affairs, and this is of my concern.”

Jupiter called the guards to take him away but Perseus left on his own free will and jupiter turned his sights to Jason.

“Is this how you shall conduct your affairs? To have your second in command defend you!”

Jason nodded. “I never asked him to defend me, sire.”

Jupiter turned away from him quickly. “You are pathetic! How am I to give you the throne when all you have done is disappoint me?!”

Jason glared at his back. He said nothing, what was there to say? He had tried tirelessly to be the man his father would be proud to call his son and the future king, but Jupiter was never satisfied, and Jason could not give anymore, for there was nothing left to give.

Jupiter waved his hand. “Be gone with you! I want you out of my sight!”

Jason took one step forward. “Father-”

“Out!” Jupiter’s voiced boomed.

Jason’s step faltered and he turned around quickly. He walked quickly out of the throne room, not bothering with his robes and just tossing them aside as he ran down the hall.

Jason ran through the halls, despite calls after him and he ran all the way to west wing where his room sat in a tower. Jason threw the crown on his bed, his hands threw it too hard and it hit the wall instead. The metal clanged and he was sure there would be a dent, but for the moment he couldn’t bring himself to care. His eyes stung and his fists curled as he punched the stone wall. His knuckles bled as he screamed, no one could hear him in the tower. That tall and isolated tower where his father had put him because it was easier than being responsible for his own son. Jason screamed and punched the wall over and over and over and over until his vision blurred red and his knuckles bled fast and then there were hands around his wrists.

“That’s enough, sire.” Nico said softly.

Jason turned to him, eyes wild but swimming with tears and there was rage and desperation there.

Nico lowered his hands slowly. “That’s enough.”

Jason nodded, but soon he sank to the floor, his sobs came in full effect and he slumped into Nico’s arms. It had been the first time they had been in each other’s arms, but he could not dwell on that as his emotions came in full force. He sobbed and sobbed and Nico held him until he could sit, and then Nico asked his manservant to fetch bandages, and leave them.

Jason was glad there was no one else there to bear witness to his weaknesses.

_**But you're a king and I'm a lionheart.** _

_**A lionheart.** _

Jason woke up to find Nico beside his bed.

Nico smiled sadly at him. “Be careful, sire. Your hand is badly hurt.”

Jason looked down at his bandaged hand. Jason felt the ghost pain as it collided with a wall.

Jason looked at him. “Did they tell you why this happened?”

Nico nodded. “No, sire. I will not listen to what they say, only what you tell me.”

Jason sighed, his responsibilities weighing him down. “My father does not find me fit to be the king.”

Nico nodded and they sat for a way.

Jason sighed after a while. “I must be in a sorry state.”

Nico nodded. “You are perfectly fine beside your hand, sire.”

Jason nodded and he laid back into the pillow. He looked up at the canopy above his bed. “Perhaps my father was right.”

Nico scoffed. “Do not be ridiculous, sire.”

Jason looked at him in a mirrored desperation of the day before. “But what if I am? What if I am not fit to be king? Or I am too weak?”

Nico gave him a firm look as he got a bowl of hot water and sat beside him to change the bandage. “You are not weak, and you were meant to be king.”

Jason scoffed. “How would you know? You are valiant, courageous.”

Nico took his time unwrapping the bandages and spoke softly. “I do not serve those who are not meant to be kings, sire.”

Jason nodded. “I know. But it still stands to question, how are you so brave? And how may I even begin to have an ounce of that?”

Nico stared at him. “You have bravery entirely your own, sire.”

Jason practically beamed under the compliment. “But it does not answer my first question.”

Nico shrugged and wrapped his hand carefully in the new bandages. “It is as natural as your role in all of this. I have the heart of a lion, and you, sire, are to be king.”

Nico remembered his mother’s words. _A lionheart, stronger than any of them._

Jason nodded. “A lionheart.”

Nico looked up at him and smiled softly. “Yes, sire.”

Jason took hold of his hand and for a while they didn’t let go.

**_His crown lit up the way as we moved slowly_ **

**_Past the wondering eyes of the ones that were left behind._ **

Jupiter had not seen him that week and Jason did not say goodbye to his father when he left for a two day hunt.

It turned out they would not talk again.

It was midday in the middle of June when the King’s Hand ran into Jason’s study frantically.

Jason looked up. “What is it?”

The King’s Hand let out a gasp. “It is the king. He is dying.”

It turned out that the King had fallen off his horse and the other horses had trampled him in a fit of panic. They lay him in his bed and Jason looked down at him.

“How long will it be until he shall finally die?” He said it to the court physician, but kept his eyes on his father.

The physician sighed. “Only a day left, sire.”

Jason nodded.

Nico followed silently behind Jason as he made his way to the throne. His robes dragged behind him and the prince’s crown was placed carefully on his head. It glittered, and it seemed to light Nico’s way, glinting with precious jewels and gold that had been polished to perfection. He walked with his head held high and his eyes forward. It was the only way he could look. It was the only way he could stand to look. He felt the velvet of the robes weight him down and he figured it was simply the weight of all of this. Jupiter had been dead for a month.

Jason step in front of the bishop and Nico went to stand beside the rest of the Royal Guard.

They stood stock still as the bishop went on, and Jason recited all the lines he was told to recite and he did all the things he was told to do, and nothing felt any different than before. But this time there had been death, and there had been someone to leave behind. Jason hadn’t liked his father, knew that many didn’t, but he was Jason’s father, and Jason, even if he wished against it, had loved him in his own right.

The bishop placed the King’s crown on him and when he turned the dread of this, of this day, it all washed away. He turned to the Royal Guard who had stood to salute him, and his court was smiling at him, actually smiling, and Nico. Most of all there was Nico at the stead of the crowd, smile the brightest of them all.

**  
  
**

**_Though far away, though far away, though far away_ **

**_We're still the same, we're still the same, we're still the same._ **

The months passed and Jason was more involved, more busy, busy restoring all the things his father had broken, and he had been trying very hard. Days had melded into weeks that had melded into months and before he knew it a year and a half had gone by.

One day he had finished with the council when he noticed a significant absence.

He turned to Perseus. “Where is Nico?”

Perseus turned to him and furrowed his brow. “Sire? I believe he told you. He went home to Hades’ territory.”

_**Howling ghosts – they reappear** _

_**In mountains that are stacked with fear** _

Hades coughed from his bed and looked up at Nico.

“I have only you as my heir.”

His words gripped Nico’s chest and they were the words that Nico had always feared. Nico had hoped that leaving, joining Jason and never coming back here would be the end of his troubles. But his mother had spoken of the past, and it had caught up to him. The letter had come from a private messenger, and while Nico stewed about, considering the letter, he had asked Jason. Jason had made noncommittal noises. These past years had been difficult and Nico was sure Jason would never notice him gone now that he was king. He had given Perseus the King’s Hand pin and Perseus had given him a sad look in return. Jason did not go after him, it had been a month. So Nico stood in front of his father, steeled his expression, and stood straight.

“Tell me what I must do.”

Nico was coronated a month later. He himself had walked down an aisle, much like Jason had, and he had worn a crown, but this one was dull. It was made of obsidian, and should have glinted, but as Nico walked the seemingly endless aisle everything felt dim. He stood before the bishop, doing the things he was told to do, and saying the things he was told to say. It left a bad flavor in his mouth, but when the crown touched his head with finality he knew it would be forever. He looked back at his Royal Guard, they were a kindly group. And his subjects, who stared at him in pride, and his fears stacked themselves high. He would disappoint them, they would rebel, they would grow to hate him. His fears stacked until it was a mountain. That day Nico was just grateful he didn’t faint.

**_But you're a king and I'm a lionheart._ **

Jason could not just leave the castle anymore. For the first time in who knew how many months, Jason had noticed Nico’s absence, and now he had returned to his father, a knight. Jason wanted him to return, to come be the King’s Hand. He had promised.

Three months and Jason was finally free to see to it that Nico returned home. He went with Perseus and they rode all day until they arrived at the gates of Hades’ castle.

The guards that stood at the gate looked at him warily. “What business do you have here?” One of them asked.

Jason looked at him. “I am King Jason Grace of Olympia.”

The guards bowed immediately, until Jason told them to rise.

Perseus turned to them. “May you tell us where we might find Nico di Angelo?”

One of the guards nodded and led them through the castle. They went down long dark and winding halls into they arrived to a large room, presumably the Throne Room, and Nico sat in the chair at the head.

Jason squinted as though he couldn’t believe what he just saw. “Nico? Is that you?”

Nico jumped. “Oh.”

Jason furrowed his eyebrows and walked forward. “You never mentioned being the King’s son.”

Nico looked down, eyes wary but also regretful. “I had not known until a few years ago. And it was not until now that my father wanted me to be known.”

“Why is that?”

Nico gestured to his throne. “Because I have become king. My father has been ill and can no longer rule.”

Jason turned to Perseus. “Leave us.”

Perseus seemed to be reluctant to leave them alone, but he did as he was told.

Jason turned to Nico, hurt evident in his eyes and it burned Nico like a white-hot brand.

“You swore for as long as I needed you.”

Nico nodded. “You did not need me, Jason.”

Jason shivered as his name left Nico’s lips softly. “Yes, yes I did.”

Nico looked at him, eyes pleading for him to leave, to make this easier.

“You hadn’t needed me for a long time.”

Jason nodded his head rapidly, his eyes stinging. “I have always needed you.”

Nico sighed and ran a finger through the hair that now brushed his shoulders.

“Jason, I cannot leave. This kingdom, my home, it needs me.”

Jason nodded his head. “Let me stay with you.”

Nico scoffed. “Please, Jason, be serious.”

Jason looked at him. “I can declare with the utmost certainty that I am completely serious.”

Nico nodded. “I wouldn’t let you.”

Jason took Nico’s hand in his and it was their second contact, and it surged through them. “I love you.”

Nico pulled his hand away quickly. “Jason, do not do this.”

Jason took a step closer. “Tell me you do not feel the same.”

Nico nodded, feeling his heart sink and his eyes water. “It doesn’t matter what we feel, Jason. We have duties we all must see through.”

Jason looked at him, tears in his eyes, for the first time in his life his eyes burned with loss and pain.

“I would give it up. I would give up the crown if it meant I could have you.”

Nico nodded. “I would never let you do that. You would grow to regret it.”

Jason knew that to be true, but could not give Nico the satisfaction. “Why will you not let me do this? Why would you allow yourself to do this? If it does not make you happy.”

Nico looked at him sadly and cradled his face with one hand. Jason reveled in the touch.

“Because you are a king. And I have a lion’s heart.”

**And in the sea that's painted black,**

**Creatures lurk below the deck.**

Jason had nightmares for months. There were nights where he’d have dreamed of Nico and when he woke up screaming it was to find his nightmare hadn’t been nearly as horrible as the reality. Jason learned to live with them.

Nico couldn’t sleep, he had not been able to even before he had left, and now it was immensely more difficult. He would wake up early, take care of his father, go about his duties, go over meetings with the council. Nico did anything to distract from the fact that his bed felt cold, and his chest felt heavy.

At night Nico would look out of his window in a tower and Jason would look out of his and they would be comforted by the simple fact that they stayed up late into the night under the same moon.

The nightmares stayed.

_**But you're a king and I'm a lionheart.** _

Hazel, Nico’s half sister, became his heir. She was a year younger than him, and she was all that Nico had ever wanted from a sister. Bianca was still gone, rarely visiting in the years since she’d left, but Nico knew Hazel would stay with him.

She was the first person she’d told about his feelings. She had smiled affectionately and told him she thought him brave, and it saddened her deeply that he could not be with his love.

When asked why he turned down Jason’s offer for him to stay with Nico he just remembered his mother’s words. He was strong than them all. He had to be.

Jason wished he had that type of control.

_**And as the world comes to an end** _

_**I'll be here to hold your hand.** _

Jason got sick from traveling in the rain by horseback.

He came down with what seemed to be pneumonia, and it only got worse. He gradually declined in health, and when the physician, after doing all he could, told him he would only last the month, he called for them to bring him Nico.

When the messenger came to Nico, frantically telling him that the king was sick, would be dead soon, that he had called for him, he flew from his chambers. Hazel followed two days later, affairs straightened out for the month, and trunks of clothes for her brother. He stayed by Jason’s side, and while Jason could see him, see that brilliantly tanned skin and dark hair, he was weak. Too weak to stand and barely enough strength to sit up. Nico talked to him, had cried upon seeing him pale and laying in bed near death.

Nico stayed with him for two weeks, working tirelessly with the physician to find something to help him heal, anything to stop whatever was coming for him.

Day and night Nico was by Jason’s side, hugging him, kissing his hands when they were alone, and feeding him. Jason reveled in the feeling of Nico next to him once more.

And then the most miraculous thing happened and slowly Jason got better. It went past a month and Jason lay in his bed, slowly but surely recovering from his sickness. His healthy regenerated, and Nico nearly cried in relief.

That was Jason’s favorite part.

_**'Cause you're my king and I'm your lionheart.** _

_**A lionheart.** _

Jason woke up to find Nico smiling at him, eyes swimming with tears. They were alone.

Jason smiled at him sleepily. “Why are you crying, my beloved?”

Nico let out a small, wet laugh. “I nearly lost you.”

Jason put a hand over Nico’s. “But you did not. I would never have done that to you.”

Nico nodded, wiping his nose. “No, I daresay you would not have.”

Jason looked at him. “When will you be going back to your kingdom?”

Nico nodded. “I shan’t be going back.”

Jason’s eyes widened. “You gave up your title?” Something akin to regret bubbled in Jason at the thought of Nico giving up helping his own people so he could be with Jason.

Nico nodded. “No, we shall build a new kingdom, you and I. Together.” Together.

Jason looked at him surprised. “Together.”

Nico nodded. “For as long as you’ll need me.”

“I will always need you.” Jason said automatically.

Nico nodded and leaned into him for a kiss. It was sweet, tastes of the promises Nico had proposed, and all that they could be. It was filled with a passion Jason had never known before he had set eyes on that man with the tanned skin and dark eyes that looked at him and knew him completely, totally.

Jason looked at him once they pulled away. “Why? Why would you do all this for me?”

Nico smiled at him, thinking of his mother's words. “Because you are my king, and I have a lion’s heart.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! And don't forget that submissions for AUs are always welcome and appreciated! :D


	5. My Worst Enemy Is My Memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which your author cannot say how sorry she is about this and had made it up to you all by bringing Bianca di Angelo back from the dead simply because she loves Bianca too much.
> 
> Also Sharlatan asked for more, and more THERE SHALL BE.

**_omg i feel so spoiled but can i ask for another au/prompt? au where jason hates bianca (for a misunderstood reason) but falls in love with her brother._ **

* * *

**  
  
  
  
**

It wasn’t that Jason hated Bianca.

Okay, Jason hated Bianca. But let him explain.

They, Nico and Jason, had been sparring when Nico told him the news.

“My father, as a favor to me, had Bianca reincarnated into an already born demigod.”

Jason almost dropped his sword. “I’m sorry, what?”

Nico nodded, lunging, and this time it almost nicked Jason where he stood frozen, staring.

“I have to find her.”

Jason shook his head in denial. “Nico, that’s ridiculous. There’s thousands of demigods all over the world that might be undiscovered.”

Nico looked at him through his fringe. “I have to try, Jason. She’s out there. Plus, Hades told me where I could find her.”

Jason knew he would do it anyway. There had been months after the war with Gaea when Nico would sit in his cabin, talking with Jason in the shadow of that giant statue and Nico talked about the way he missed Bianca. He hadn’t opened up much, but after a while he did, and Jason felt terrible. Jason felt a heavy guilt looking at his father’s statue.  _I am nothing like you. I would never do that to Nico di Angelo._

When Nico talked about Bianca there was this haunted look in his eyes, as if he could never fully recall everything about her anymore. Nico had seen her as a ghost, and Nico had been torn apart when she chose to be reincarnated. It tore him apart and for that Jason hated Bianca. Bianca was one of the reasons Nico couldn’t sleep at night. And Bianca was the reason Nico clung to him as if he was the only thing he could see as family besides Will Solace. Bianca was the reason for red eyes, whimpers, and days spent under the shade of a tree, listening to Nico’s breathing when life was too much and Nico, brave as he was, couldn’t stand to even walk or open his eyes, because it wasn’t the pain of the memories, but the loneliness of them.

Jason, reasonably, decided to protest. “Nico, you shouldn’t do this.”

Nico looked at him in hurt. “She’s my sister, Jason.”

Jason shook his head. “No, I know, I know. But. . .” He didn’t want to say what they were both thinking.

Nico looked at him, eyes knit together in hurt and fierce defense. “What if she doesn’t remember me? I know, Jason. But she’ll see me and know.”

He looked at Jason desperately. “She has to know.”

Jason walked forward carefully. “Nico, maybe, let her find camp on her own.”

Nico threw down the celestial bronze sword he had used for practice. “No! No. My father did this so we could be together. I will find her.”

Jason looked at him and let his sword turn back into it’s original form. “Then I’m coming with you. Where is she?”

Nico looked at him warily. “She’s in D.C.”

Jason nodded and went to his cabin to get his things. Bianca, who had torn Nico into pieces without really thinking about it. Bianca who he had never met, but was determined to hate, because she had left Nico. It reminded him of the way Thalia had left their mother because he had left. Thalia had loved him, taken care of him, she had loved him and never would have left him. Bianca left Nico.

Jason should probably examine the feelings associated with his fierce protectiveness, but decided against it. Piper had said something a few months ago when she had broken it off.

“You don’t love me anymore.” She’d said it softly. As if she knew it had been a long time coming. She looked sad, but Jason couldn’t help but think that she also wasn’t hurt, maybe that had been wishful thinking. Jason had felt terrible for weeks after and his only consolation had been Nico.

Jason would also appreciate that no one examine that.

**  
  
**

They left at the crack of dawn, both leaving notes on their cabin doors and telling Chiron where they would be headed.

Chiron had given Nico sympathetic eyes, but had nodded his ascent. They look off on one of the many pegasi in the stables. Jason saddled up easily, but the pegasus seemed uneasy with Nico, even jumping a bit as Nico tried to saddle up behind Jason.

They rode to D.C. in silence, Nico clinging tightly to Jason as they flew, and when they arrived at the National Mall Nico asked Jason to drop them off here.

They landed in a secluded patch of lawn and Jason told the pegasus to please come with another buddy for their friend. If this mission they’d be coming back with a new friend. The horse whinied and flew off. Jason turned to Nico.

“Ready to find a daughter of Hades?”

**  
  
**

They walked along the National Mall’s pond and had it not been for the fact that they both had weapons concealed and were aware that they had a mission, it felt almost like a leisurely stroll through the national monuments of America. Jason turned to Nico as they made their way to the Washington monument.

“So, what are you going to do when you see her?” Jason tried to hide the protective venom in his voice.

Nico shrugged, trying to look nonchalant, but Jason knew better. Knew that Nico cared too much, hoped for this too much.

“Get her to camp, explain things to her. Maybe she’ll remember me.”

Jason nodded slowly before turning back to look as they made their way closer to the monument. They were in the lawn area in front of it, on top of it’s hill.

“So where is she?” Jason asked. Again, Jason really had to check that venom.

Nico looked around and stopped. He froze. Jason knew this was the moment. The moment Nico had waited for. The moment he hadn’t waited for, in all honesty. Jason had heard stories from all the people who knew Bianca. He knew all about it from Thalia, and Percy, and he had had heard enough to know that no matter when Bianca had done, she had left ten year old Nico alone in a world he didn’t understand, and Jason could never forgive that.

“She’s right there.”

He pointed to a girl in a floppy green cap.

**  
  
**

The thing about Bianca di Angelo is that she was attracting trouble. You’d think that after being dead for a few years she would have known to lay low, but the monsters following her had been pretty deadset on killing her. You didn’t get reincarnated without any sort of reprucussions.

She was running towards a bridge and Nico looked behind her to see what was chasing her. It looked like a few men in trench coats were running after her. He looked at Jason.

“We have to save her.”

They both took off running, Jason drew his sword and Nico unsheathed his stygian iron sword. They took off towards the bridge, only a few yards behind the bad guys chasing Bianca.

Nico looked at him as they ran past indignant tourists. “Fly and get them out of the way.”

Jason nodded and went forward, sword poised and he watched as the three monsters disintigrated, but Bianca kept running. Nico chased after her, and Jason kept up with him easily. Nico seemed a bit out of breath after a while so Jason lifted him from his arms and they flew over to where Bianca had disappeared into a closed off clearing. She was bent over her knees and gasping.

She looked at Jason. “You. . . flying. . .” She gasped.

He nodded curtly. Jason wondered if this was what she looked liked all those years ago, and just four years before that.

She gasped. “Who the hell were those guys? Who the hell are you guys? What in the name of all that is holy is happening?”

Nico stepped forward. “Bianca? It’s me. . . It’s me, Nico.”

The girl looked at him with eyes narrowed in suspicion. “O-kay,” she dragged out the o, “nice to know, but I have no idea who you are. Who any of you are.”

Just like Jason had expected, and Nico had looked so heartbroken, and it was like she was breaking his heart all over again. Jason was finding way too many reasons to hate her. He didn’t want to, knew that she was important to Nico, but he couldn’t help it. Couldn’t help the anger that bubbled inside of him on his friend’s behalf.

Nico turned and walked a few yards away, fists clenched.

Jason turned to Bianca. “One sec.”

He went after Nico and Nico’s head was bent, but Jason knew this stance. Nico was crying, and you couldn’t see it through his hair.

“She was supposed to know me.” Nico muttered. “She was supposed to see me and know who I was.”

Jason found himself comforting Nico. “Maybe it’ll take time. Maybe she just has to get to Camp Half-Blood.”

Before Nico could say anything there was a noise that came from the shadows, a rustling. Nico turned around and found something coming from the other end of the clearing. Nico’s jaw dropped, but the girl just sighed heavily.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

Across the field, charging towards them, was a French Manticore.

**  
  
**

Jason wasn’t sure why Nico stood there shocked for more than a few moments, but as the Manticore charged and Jason ran after it, trying to shield Bianca, Nico seemed entranced, stuck, frozen. Jason yelled for him.

“Nico!”

That seemed to snap him out of it and the manticore laughed as Nico ran towards them.

“Silly boy. You will lose her just like before!” He said, and weaved around Jason, gripping Bianca as she yelped.

Nico’s eyes grew wide with horror, but all around them skeletons burst through the ground.

“Not this time! Never again!” He shouted, as the Manticore was slowed down by his skeletons.

The Manticore whipped his tale and the skeletons broke into piles of bones. He laughed. “Did you think it would be different, son of Hades? Did you think you would get your precious Bianca back without a price?”

The girl gasped as she looked at Nico, still struggling as the Manticore gripped her tighter as she fought.

“Nico!” She cried.

Nico looked at her, and he couldn’t tell if she remembered him, but he also couldn’t let a fellow demigod die.

“I’ll get you out of there.” He said grimly.

Jason tried to lunge but he was busy dodging the poisonous darts the Manticore threw in his direction.

The Manticore laughed. “Silly Nico di Angelo. Trapped with your friends just like you were four years ago. No matter how much you think you’ve changed, you haven’t. You couldn’t save your friends then, and you can’t save them now.”

“Don’t listen to him, Nico!” Jason yelled from up in the air.

Nico nodded. “You’re wrong. I will get that girl, and you’re going to go back to Tartarus where you belong.”

The Manticore hissed. “I could kill her now!”

The girl gulped. “Yeah, let’s hold off on that.”

Nico lunged forward, but mist clouded him and he disappeared in a billow of smokey black mist. The Manticore growled.

“Where is he?! Where is that blasted son of Hades?!”

Nico appeared right behind him and stabbed him two times. He gasped and then dissolved into a pile of ash and golden dust.

The girl gasped as she fell forward and looked up at them. Jason was sure they were a sight to behold. A blonde boy floating in the hair and a dark haired boy with scars and an obsidian black blade.

She looked up at them.

“Nico. . . You’re. . . The quest. . . The Hunters of Artemis. . .” She muttered.

Nico nodded. “It’s me, Bianca.”

She looked up at him and tears welled in her eyes. “You’ve gotten so tall. And your hair, it’s all short, except for the front.”

Nico looked up at in sheepishly, but Bianca waved a hand. “No, no, it. . . It suits you.”

Nico blushed in pride. “Thanks.”

Bianca looked around confused. “How-How did I get reincarnated so fast?”

Nico looked at her. “A lot of things happened. I. . . I got a favor from our father.”

Bianca knit her eyebrows together. “Our father?”

Nico nodded. “Our father is the Lord Hades.”

Bianca nodded, taking it all on stride. Jason had to admire her for that at least a little.

Nico knelt beside her, eyes watering, and Jason hoped it was from happiness. “You look just like you did. . .”

“When I died.” Bianca finished and Nico nodded.

Bianca smiled at him and brushed the hair out of his face. It made Jason’s blood boil over a bit, that was something he had always wanted to do.

“You’re too skinny. Tell me you haven’t been starving yourself while I was gone.”

Nico laughed wetly, and he looked so happy, eyes shining and bright and Jason wondered what Nico had been like before life had been cruel and turned him hard. Jason saw his eyes light up in a way he had never seen before and Jason was jealous that only Bianca could do this, could make him this happy.

Nico nodded. “No. Camp is feeding me fine.”

Jason coughed loudly. “Speaking of camp, our rides are here to carry us back.”

The pegasi arrived just in time and they all mounted the pegasi. Jason tried not to feel bitter about the way Nico eagerly took the reigns of the second pegasus despite it’s protests and volunteered that he and Bianca ride together.

So many months, almost a year, of Jason trying to help Nico. Nico had been in a moderately good place with everything, before Hades had granted him that little favor. Nico may not have been totally happy, but he could get there, and he could do it with Jason’s help. But Bianca had shown up out of the blue, newly reincarnated into her old body and everything Jason had done and tried to do with Nico didn’t matter anymore. It didn’t matter that Jason had grown attached, or that Bianca had left him. None of it mattered. Jason felt a blush of envy tickle his cheeks and focused on the ride back home to Camp Half-Blood.

**  
  
**

When they arrived Chiron was there to greet them, shocked to find Bianca alive and well, but gave her a hug and allowed the di Angelo siblings to go to their cabin and catch up. Jason watched their retreating backs with scorn.

“I thought you would be happy for Nico.” Chiron said.

Jason looked up at him and sighed. “I am. . . I am. It’s just-”

“She’s taken your place and doing a much better job?” Chiron offered.

Jason grumbled but nodded. Chiron gave him a knowing smile, but led him away to go teach the new campers about canoe racing with Percy.

When dinner arrived everyone had been chatting and happy until they saw Nico walk in with Bianca di Angelo newly raised from the dead.

Annabeth broke a plate.

Percy broke three.

Percy walked right up to Nico. “Please tell me this is a joke.”

Nico shook his head in disagreement. “It’s not. It’s really her.”

Percy turned to Bianca, dazed. “You-”

She smiled at him kindly. “My father gave me reincarnation early.”

Percy made a squeaking noise. “But you. . .”

Bianca looked at him sadly. “Died? Yes, I know, Percy.”

Percy looked between the two of them. “I’m-I’m so sorry, Bianca. I should have-” His voice sounded choked with tears and Bianca put a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s okay, Percy. I came back.”

Percy nodded silently, sadly, until Annabeth took him away.

Bianca and Nico sat in the seats across from Jason. Nico’s eyes didn’t have their rings around them somehow, and he was waved his arms enthusiastically as he spoke. Jason loved seeing him like this, wanted to kiss him, but he hated that it hadn’t been him who made him so happy.

**  
  
  
**

Naturally, Artemis showed up.

Again.

When she showed up it was during the sing alongs after the campfire and she showed up alone.

Everyone turned to her, bowing in respect, the satyrs had tripped over each other trying to gain her favor but she walked right up to where Bianca sat next to Nico and Jason next to him as well. The goddess looked no older than twelve, which Jason wasn’t sure shocked him or not, but she stood tall and proud and her eyes bore into Bianca, and Bianca gave her a sad smile.

“Hello, my Huntress.”

Artemis seemed to give her a genuine smile. “Bianca di Angelo, former hunter, we have much to discuss.”

Bianca rose slowly from her seat and followed as Artemis made her way to cabin eight. Nico looked after them worriedly, but Jason just put a hand on his knee.

“It’ll be fine, Nico.”

Nico shook his head. “I can’t lose her again. Not again. This can’t happen a second time. This can’t be happening.”

Jason just took his hand and squeezed and for a moment Nico looked at him in shock. Jason tried to ignore Leo’s smirk from across the campfire.

“It’ll be alright.”

The campers continued their sing along as if nothing had happened. When it was over Jason followed Nico as he sat on the porch steps of cabin eight. They waited for a while until Artemis walked out and looked right at Nico. Nico stood fast and looked at her.

She gave him a sympathetic glance. “I have asked your sister to join me again, Nico di Angelo.”

Nico nodded, Jason hated the tears that welled in his eyes. Jason hated the Hunters of Artemis and hated Bianca di Angelo.

“I understand.”

Artemis took a step forward and looked into Nico’s eyes and sighed sadly. “It is her choice, Nico. You must understand. I understand your pain, Zoe Nightshade wrought me great grief, but your sister could be powerful, and she’d live forever at my side. It is her choice. Do not be the one who holds her back.”

Nico nodded.

Artemis turned to Jason and regarded him warily. “Hello. . . brother.”

Jason nodded in respect. “Lady Artemis.”

Bianca emerged then and Artemis looked between the two, “I believe you have much to discuss. Choose wise, Bianca.”

She vanished in a pillar of smoke, But Jason felt as though she was nearby.

Bianca looked at Nico sadly and held out her hand. “Take a walk with me.”

Nico looked back and Jason and Jason nodded. Once they were a little ways away he snuck after them, sitting in the trees as they talked by the edge of the water. If he was really quiet, he could hear them talking.

“Nico, you know how important this is to me.”

Nico nodded, and Jason could see he was crying. Jason wished he could fly down and comfort him, protect him from the hurt Bianca always seemed to bring him.

“I know.”

Bianca sighed sadly and looked out at the water. “Being dead, it gave me a lot of time to think about the past few years, and I. . . I want to go with her again, Nico.”

“But you can’t!” Nico cried out.

Jason could imagine him, five years younger, only ten, and scared and sad, and having no one in the world but the girl standing across from him. Nico had been so alone. Bianca had left him alone. Bianca had done that.

Jason could see that Bianca’s eyes watered. “Nico, I’ll come often, I promise.”

Nico gripped her arms tightly and shook her softly. “I already lost you once. You’ll die if you go with her!”

Bianca nodded her head. “I’ll be fine. Artemis promised she wouldn’t let that happen again.”

“But I need you!” Nico cried. He was openly crying.

Jason wasn’t sure if that was good or bad, but it made his heart constrict.

Bianca brushed the hair out of his eyes and stroked his face. “No you don’t. You haven’t needed me for a while.”

Nico nodded. He backed away from him, nearly tripping as he backed away from her. His eyes were watery and they looked even more glassy in the moonlight. Nico turned and ran, , wiping his eyes as he continued to cry. Jason flew down when Nico was out of sight, Bianca was staring after him sadly. She also didn’t seem too surprised that he had shown up.

“It wasn’t easy the first time.”

Jason glowered at her and tried to control the lightning that threatened to spark on his fingertips. “Maybe if you didn’t do it so often he wouldn’t have something to be sad about.”

Bianca turned to him slowly, regarding him for a moment before she smiled sadly.

“You hate me.”

He had enough modesty to sigh and kick the dirt at his feet harshly. “Nico’s had a lot of problems.”

Bianca nodded slowly. “And you think they are partially my fault.”

She didn’t say it like a question. It was something she knew just by looking at him.

He shrugged, frown permanently set in his face. “I guess. Nico talked about it enough.”

Bianca looked at him for a moment longer, eyes looking over him and under the scrutiny he seemed uneasy. Unlike Nico’s eyes that seemed pained at times, but wide and wondrous and deep, her seemed aged. She looked at him as though she knew secrets from years and decades before Jason had even been born, and she had. She was so old and her eyes told that to Jason. Somehow it unnerved him, because Nico didn’t look like that. Not at all. Nico was soft, closed off, but he was kind, and Jason found him beautiful, found his eyes beautiful. Bianca scared him a bit, but it didn’t quelch the hate he felt.

“I can’t continue to take care of my brother.”

Jason nodded, fists clenched.

Bianca looked out at the woods that seemed so vast. “You wouldn’t understand. I spent so many years taking care of him. For a long time it was only Nico and I.”

Jason didn’t say anything as she turned to him and continued. “Tell me, Jason, I saw a home with the Huntress, I saw sisters in arms I could spend eons with. I saw a family. Would you turn down the same offer?”

Jason remembered his mother back in Ithica. He remembered how she had used only their blood as the tie between them. She wasn’t his family, not the way Percy and Nico and Leo and Piper and Annabeth and everyone had been. Jason uncurled his fists and sighed dejectedly.

“No, I didn’t.”

Bianca nodded. “Then you have to understand why I have to do this. This is a second chance. A second shot at life. I have to take it.”

Jason nodded and flew after Nico. He looked back to see a tent set up and Artemis inviting Bianca in. She smiled wide as she entered the silver tent. Jason turned away.

**  
  
**

 

The morning came and Nico and Jason sat in his bed, Nico didn’t say anything but he sat there and Jason sat beside him.

Before breakfast Bianca poked her head in and saw them staring at her back from the bed in the cabin and sitting together. Jason’s arm was around Nico but it fell immediately as the door opened. Bianca opened the door cautiously and looked at Nico sadly.

“It’s time.”

He shot up and Jason followed him as they made their way over to where Artemis stood by the brazier in the middle of the cabin grounds. No one else was awake yet.

Bianca’s hair was braided and she wore a silver parka, hunting boots, and a pair of plain jeans. Jason though that she looked much more comfortable in this get up.

She smiled sadly as she wrapped Nico in a hug he returned. “I’ll miss you, Nico.”

Nico let out a sob and his fists turned white as they grabbed her park in a vice grip.

“Please come back soon.”

Artemis turned to Nico. “I will allow her three days at the end of each month. And we will visit you often, Nico di Angelo. You had proven an ally in battle and I have not forgotten. You are well-deserving of a reward.”

Nico nodded. Artemis called her chariot as the sun rose slowly and Bianca looked at him sadly. “You have a family now, Nico. A real one, not like ours. Remember what we used to talk about?”

He nodded and wiped his nose as his tears rolled down his face.

Bianca turned to Jason and pulled him a little ways away.

“I understand you’re angry with me, but I need you to watch my little brother for me.”

Jason nodded. That much he could promise.

Bianca looked back at her brother sadly. “Tell him. Tell him you love him. He deserves to know. He needs family.”

Jason nodded again, face guarded. “I will.”

Bianca nodded and went to hug Nico one last time. “Be safe. I’ll be back soon so don’t go running off.”

Nico clutched her tighter. “All those years ago, when you left the first time. I told you I hated you. I wanted to hate you so bad, but I was just scared of being alone.”

“We all get scared, Nico.”

He cried into her shoulder, but they both realized that somehow Nico had gotten impossibly taller than her.

“Please. Be safe. I need you to live this time.”

Bianca took off her cap and handed it to him. “Keep it. Every time I come back, I’ll bring back a new cap. I’ll make it our special way of making sure I come back.”

Nico nodded and chuckled wetly. “Bye, Bi.”

She gave him a wistful smile. “Bye, Nico. See you soon.”

And Jason watched as Artemis flew into the sky, Bianca next to her, wind flowing behind her and both covered in a silver shimmering aura.

Nico looked up at her retreating. “I think it’s going to be okay.”

Jason smiled at him. “Do you think that you can handle this?”

Nico nodded, smiling. “Yeah,” he fingering the green cap, “she’ll be back. She promised.”

Jason nodded and took his hand easily. Nico looked up at him knowingly and smiled back.

Jason tugged him along. “Come on, it’s time for breakfast.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember to like this and comment with prompts you might like to see and just enjoy! :D


	6. To Each His Own

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So I just watched the Proposal for the second time in a while. . . AND SUDDENLY I got this AU in my head. So here it is! 
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the script of The Proposal, I just used it for reference.

_**Prompt:** The Proposal AU_

* * *

**  
  
**

Jason ran down the street, dodging and leaping as he ran with dry cleaning and papers and manuscripts for his boss. He passed by the coffeeshop quickly as the barista winked at him.

“Hey, Jason.” The girl smiled.

Jason smiled back cordially. “Hi! Have my order ready?”

The girl handed over two coffees as he ran out after snatching them. He checked his watch as he ran into the elevator in the lobby of the building he worked at.

Percy looked at him over his cubicle as he entered the floor of the Publishing company. “You ever get tired of serving Satan’s right hand man? Maybe think of poisoning him?”

Jason looked at the office chat window that warned him his boss was coming. He looked at Percy and muttered, “Every day of my life.”

He made his way over to the elevator with his coffee and other paperwork that needed to be done.

“Good morning, Mr. di Angelo.”

Nico took off his sunglasses, dressed in an impeccable and tight fitting suit as he walked in customized Italian shoes Jason remembered ordering just last week.

“Your regular latte.” Jason offered him the coffee cup.

Nico continued walking without looking at him, taking the cup, taking a breath of the coffee’s aroma. “Literally saved my life.”

Nico picked up his phone as it rang and he made his way through the corridor to his office. “Hello, Frank? How's my favourite writer? Of course you've been thinking about  
our talk because you know I'm right. People in this country are busy, broke, and hate to read. They need someone to say, ‘Hey! Don't watch CSI: Indianapolis tonight. Read a book! Read Frank's book.’ And that person is Oprah.”

He continued to speak as Jason followed after him and Percy bumped into him as he made his way to go make copies. That effectively spilled all of Nico's latte on Jason's shirt.

Jason cursed and turned to Percy. “I need the shirt off your back. Literally.”

Percy looked at him warily. “You're kidding, right?”

Jason deadpanned. “Yankees, Boston, this Tuesday, two company seats for your shirt. You have five seconds to decide.”

Percy deliberated.

“Five, four, three, two, one-” Jason said.

Percy moved quickly, changing his shirt as he sighed heavily.

Jason looked at him and have him an equally put out look. “I know…”

Nico emerged from his office just as Jason finished tucking in the shirt. He looked put out.

“Hello. Hello?” He snapped.

Jason followed after him, glancing at his PDA. “Morning. You have a conference call in 30 minutes.”

Nico nodded, lips set in a thin line. “Yes. About the marketing of the spring books. I know.”

Jason continued. “Staff meeting at 9.00.”

Nico looked up at him briefly as he shuffled with things on his desk. “Did you call…” he waved his hands as if it helped him remember, “what's her name? The one with the ugly hands.”

Jason nodded. “Janet.”

Nico snapped his fingers in recognition. “Yes, Janet.”

Jason nodded. “Yes. I did. I told her that if she doesn't get her manuscript in on time you won't give her a release date. Your immigration lawyer called. He said it's imperative…”

He was going to finish but Nico cut him off as he sent off texts as his hands flew across his phone.

“Cancel the call, push the meeting to tomorrow, keep the lawyer on the sheets. Get a hold of PR, have them start drafting a press release. Frank is doing Oprah.”

Jason raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Wow. Nicely done.”

He meant the compliment sincerely.

Nico looked up at him and gave him a look of mild disgust before he looked back at his paperwork and files. “If I want your praise, I will ask for it.”

Nico sipped his coffee and as he pulled the cup away from his lips he noticed numbers on the side. “Who is... Who is Jillian? And why does she want me to call her?”

Jason gulped. “Well, that was originally my cup.”

Nico raised an eyebrow. “And I'm drinking your coffee why?”

Jason sighed. “Because your coffee spilled.”

Nico continued staring at him with one eyebrow raised. “So, you drink unsweetened  
cinnamon light soy lattes?”

Jason deadpanned. “I do. It's like Christmas in a cup.”

“Is that a coincidence?”

Jason nopped emphatically. “Incredibly, it is. I wouldn't drink the same coffee that you drink just in case yours spilled. That would be pathetic.”

Nico picked up his phone as soon as it rang. “Morning. Mister di Angelo’s office.”

Nico nodded to no one in particular. “Hey, Bryce. Actually, we're headed to your office right now. Yeah.”

He hung up and they made their way out of the office. Jason noticed the way the employees in the office cowered away from Nico di Angelo. He continued to trail behind Nico.

“Why are we headed to Bryce's office?” Jason asked.

When Nico didn’t respond, to which Jason was used to, many of their conversations were one sided, he continued on.“Have you finished the manuscript I gave you?”

Nico look long strides as he continued to have a face of aggressive disinterest. “I read a few pages. I wasn't that impressed.”

Jason looked at him. “Can I say something?”

Nico looked forward and said in a monotone but firm voice, “No.”

Jason pushed. “I've read thousands of manuscripts, this is the only one I've given you. There's an incredible novel in there. The kind of novel you used to publish.”

Nico spared him a glance before looking forward again. Nothing about his expression changed and he remained passive. “Wrong. And I do think you order the same coffee as I do just in case you spill it, which is, in fact, pathetic.”

“Or impressive.” Jason tried.

Nico sighed, Jason could tell he was disappointed. “I'd be impressed if you didn't spill in the first place,” before he opened the door to Bryce’s office he looked at Jason, “remember, you're a prop.”

The part of Jason that wanted to stab Nico di Angelo was heavily outweighed by the part that enjoyed having a steady paycheck and a promotion. “Won't say a word.”

Bryce sighed as he stood to greet the two men. “Our fearless leader and her liege. Please, do come in.” He waved to his expansive office.

Nico looked at him with a bored expression before he turned to the ornate desk that stood in his office. Nico ran a hand over the wood before he looked up. “Beautiful breakfront. Is it new?”

Bryce shook his head. “It is English Regency Egyptian Revival, built in the 1800s but, yes, it is new to my office.”

Nico nodded, but got down to business, going straight for the kill. “Witty. Bryce, I'm letting you go.”

Bryce did a double take. “Pardon?”

Nico just shook his head. “I asked you a dozen times to get Frank to do Oprah, and you didn't do it. You're fired.”

Bryce furrowed his brows. “I have told you that is impossible. Frank hasn't done an interview in 20 years.”

Nico tilted his head in a patronizing way. “That is interesting, because I just got off the phone with him, and he is in.”

Bryce frowned. “Excuse me?”

Nico continued to stare at him with empty eyes. “You didn't even call him, did you?”

Bryce’s frown got deeper. “But…”

Nico nodded and spoke in a condescending tone. “I know, I know. Frank can be a little scary to deal with. For you. Now, I will give you two months to find another job. And then you can tell everyone you resigned, OK?”

Nico left the room swiftly, Jason following at his heels.

Nico looked forward but spoke softly. “What's his twenty?”

Jason looked back as Bryce began to pace furiously and swung his door open quickly. “He's moving. He has crazy eyes.”

Nico closed his eyes and nodded. “Don't do it, Bryce. Don't do it.”

Bryce stood a few feet away from them as he yelled. “You poisonous fuck!”

Everyone in the office turned as he began making a scene, but Nico’s back was still turned and Jason looked between them cautiously. “You can't fire me! You don't think I see what you're doing here? Sandbagging me on this Oprah thing so that you can look good to the board? Because you are threatened by me!”

He paused and added, “And you are a monster.”

Nico sighed and said loud enough for Bryce to hear. “Bryce, stop.”

Bryce just continued, his face turning red. “Just because you have no semblance of a life outside of this office, you think that you can treat all of us like your own personal slaves. You know what? I feel sorry for you. Because you know what you're gonna have on your deathbed? Nothing and no one.”

Nico turned slowly and Jason was sure he was going in for the kill, and it was going to be ugly. “Listen carefully, Bryce. I didn't fire you because I feel threatened. No. I fired you because you're lazy, entitled, incompetent and you spend more time cheating on your wife than you do in your office. And if you say another word,” he inclined to Jason, “Jason here is gonna have you thrown out, okay? Another word and you're going out of here with an armed escort. Jason will film it with hiscamera phone and he'll put it on that Internet site.”

Nico turned to Jason, eyebrows furrowed. “What was it?”

“YouTube?” Jason offered.

Nico nodded and turned back to Bryce with cold eyes. “Exactly. Is that what you want?”

Bryce said nothing, but he looked about ready to combust with all the red in his face. “Didn't think so. I have work to do.” And Nico strode away, Italian leather shoes against the carpet and his back ramrod straight. He leaned into Jason and whispered.

“Have security take his breakfront and put it in my conference room.”

Jason nodded and tapped the command into his PDA. “Will do.”

Nico went back to his phone, sending texts once more. “I need you this weekend to help review his files and his manuscript.”

Jason looked up at him and felt something drop into the pit of his stomach. “This weekend?”

Nico looked at him and raised an eyebrow, as if challenging him to disobey. “You have a problem with that?”

Jason nodded rapidly. “No. I... just my grandmother's 90th birthday, so I was gonna go home and…,” Nico gave him a bored look, “It's fine. I'll cancel it. You're saving me from a weekend of misery, so it's…” Nico walked away, leaving Jason rambling. “Good talk, yeah.”

A little while later Jason got a call from his mother, reminding him that he would have to come to his Grandma’s party, but he sighed and began explaining that Nico di Angelo, satan spawn that he is, was forcing his to stay the weekend for work.

“I know, I know. OK, tell Gammy I'm sorry. OK? What…” He was cut off.

“Mom. What do you want me to tell you? She's making me work the weekend. No, I'm not... no. I've worked too hard for this promotion to throw it all away. I'm sure that Dad is pissed,” he noticed Nico emerging from his office and tried to pass off the phone call, “but we take all of our submissions around here seriously. We'll get back to you as soon as we can.”

Nico gave him a blank stare. “Was that your family?”

Jason nodded simply. “Yes.”

Nico raised an eyebrow. “They tell you to quit?”

“Every single day.” Jason said.

Jason's phone rang and he was glad to do something other than stare at Nico’s unsettling eyes. “Mister di Angelo’s office. Yeah. Okay. All right.”

He hung up. “Bergen and Malloy want to see you upstairs.”

Nico nodded. “Okay. Come get me in ten minutes. We've got a lot to do.”

Jason nodded. “Okey-doke.”

**  
  
**

Nico walked into the office with cool ease. The Publishing company CEOs sat by Bergen’s desk.

The one standing, Edwin spoke. “Good morning, Mister di Angelo.”

Nico nodded cordially. “Jack, Edwin.”

Jack gave him a tight smile. “Congratulations on the Oprah thing. That's terrific news.”

Nico nodded and gave a look of slight pride. “Thank you, thank you. This isn't about my second raise, is it?”

He and the CEOs chuckled. “Just kidding.” He said.

Suddenly the two men got a serious look on their faces.

“Nico, do you remember when we agreed you wouldn't go to the Frankfurt Book Fair because you weren't allowed out of the country while your visa application was being processed?” Jack said.  

Nico nodded. “Yes. I do.”

Jack continued. “And... you went to Frankfurt.”

Nico nodded. “Yes. We were going to lose DeLillo to Viking. So... really didn't have a choice, did I?”

Jack sighed. “Seems the United States Government doesn't care who publishes Don DeLillo. We just spoke to your immigration attorney.”

Nico nodded and began to rise from his chair. “Great. So, we're all good? Everything good?”

Jack sighed. “Nico, your visa application has been denied.”

Edwin gave a slightly sympathetic look. “And you are being deported.”

Nico blanched. “Deported?”

Jack went on. “And there was also some paperwork you didn't fill out in time.”

Nico’s heart constricted as every word went on. “Come on. Come on! It's not like I'm even an immigrant! I'm from Canada, for Christ's sake.”

The men just sighed and Nico began to grow panicked.. “There's gotta be...something we can do.”

Jack shook his head. “We can reapply, but unfortunately you have to leave the country for at least a year.”

Nico let out a small sigh of relief. “Okay. Okay, well, that's not ideal, but I can... I can manage everything from Toronto-”

Jack shook his head again. “No.”

“-with videoconferencing, Internet.” Nico tried.

Edwin shook his head. “Unfortunately, if you're deported, you can't work for an American company. Until this is resolved I'm going to turn operations over to Bryce Lawrence.”

Nico’s eyes widened in disgust. “Bryce Lawrence? The guy I just fired?”

Jack shrugged. “We need an editor in chief. He is the only person who has enough experience.”

Nico looked at them both with desperate eyes. “You cannot be serious. I beg of you.”

Jack sighed. “Nico. We are desperate to have you stay. If there was any way, any way at all we could make this work, we'd be doing it.”

Nico began to put his head in his hands. “There is no way... I am begging you.”

Jack turned to the door that opened and Jason poked his head through but before he could even speak Jack waved a hand at him. “No. Excuse me, we're in a meeting.”

Jason looked slightly apologetic, but mostly determined to speak with Nico. “Sorry to interrupt-”

Nico turned to him, exhaling sharply.

“What?!” He snapped.

Jason looked around the room at the tight lipped executives. “Mary from Ms Winfrey's office called. She's on the line.”

Nico sighed.  “I know.”

Jason continued quietly. “She's on hold. She needs to speak with you. I told her you were otherwise engaged.”

Just as the words left Jason’s mouth a crazy, but brilliant, and irrationally amazing plan formed in Nico’s mind.

Jason continued talking.  “She insisted, so... sorry.”

Nico nodded, suddenly a lot more animated. Jason felt uneasy. “So. Come here.”

Nico motioned for him to come closer and Jason went forward with caution. Nico had a glint in his eyes Jason had never seen before and he would have described it as passion if he knew that Nico wasn’t capable of something like that.

Nico sighed, the sound seemed defeated but Jason could tell Nico was acting. “Gentlemen, I understand. I understand the predicament that we are in. And… And there's... Well…” Nico sighed again, sounding forlorn.

Nico looked at the CEOs. “I think there's something that you should know,” Nico turned to Jason, inclining with his eyes that he follow along, “we're getting married.”

Jason nearly fainted.  “We are getting married.” He said in shock.

Jack furrowed his brow. “Who is getting married?”

Jason stood still, unable to comprehend what just happened. “You and I.” He said faintly.

Nico nodded empathically. “You and I are getting married! Yes.”

“We are.” Jason said blankly.

Nico nodded animatedly. “Getting married.”

Jason spoke as though he was having an out of body experience and it honestly felt like he was. “We are getting married.”

Nico gave him a hard look. “Yes.”

Edwin looked at them with a confused look. “Isn't he your secretary? And a man?”

“Assistant.” Jason corrected, but to his own ears it sounded  faint. All the other voices jumbled together and he just stared blankly at nothing.

Nico di Angelo had just told their CEOs that Jason was marrying him. As in wedding. As in husbands.

Nico shrugged nonchalantly. “Executive... assistant secretary. Titles. But, wouldn't be the first time one of us fell for our secretaries, who happened to be of the same sex,” he turned sharply to Edwin, “would it, Edwin? With Gavin. Remember?”

The man in question seemed to shift from foot to foot and Nico continued. “So, yeah. The truth is, you know, Jason and I, we're-” he took Jason’s hand and Jason was unresponsive, “we are just two people who weren't meant to fall in love but we did.”

Jason hated the sickly sweet way Nico spoke. “No.”

Nico spoke over him. “All those late nights at the office and weekend book fairs. Yeah…”

Jason still seemed in shock. “No.”

Nico gave him a faux look of loving admiration. “Something happened.”

Jason nodded and he felt the strong urge to just punch Nico di Angelo in the throat. “Something.”

Nico nodded passionately. “Yeah. Tried to fight it and… Can't fight a…” He looked ready to upchuck in disgust. _The feeling’s mutual, di Angelo,_ Jason thought.

“Can't fight… Can't fight a love like ours, so,” Nico looked at the CEOs, “Are we good with this? Are you happy? Because, well, we are happy. So happy.”

Jack looked at them. “Nico.”

Nico looked at him. “Yes?”

Jack nodded, seemingly placated. “It's terrific. Just make it legal.”

Nico nodded. “Legal. Yeah, well, then that means we-” he turned and gave Jason another one of those looks, “-we need to get ourselves to the immigration office. So we can work this whole mess out. Right?”

Jason rose as though his body was in tandem with Nico’s from years of practice.

Nico nodded and bowed his head as he led Jason away. “Thank you very much, gentlemen. We will do that right away.”

Jason nodded at them, but the shock hadn’t worn off so it seemed like an empty gesture. “Gentlemen.”

The CEOs nodded and gave him a look. “Thank you.”

**  
  
**

Jason walked through the corridor back to his cubicle and everyone whispered as he made his way. Nico had gone off to make calls so Jason was left hearing the aftermath to Nico’s stupid decision.

“Nico and Jason are getting married!” They whispered.

Jason noticed the Stoll brothers leaning in to listen to Percy whisper.

“Yeah.” Travis said.

“What is he thinking?” Connor said.

Percy gave him a sympathetic look before sighing from across his cubicle. “Dude, for real. Him?”

Annabeth from across Percy furrowed her brow and whispered to him as Jason walked off to Nico’s office in default, but also looking for answers. “Married? Didn't even know they were dating.”

Jason heard Travis mutter, “I didn’t even know either of them was gay.”

Jason closed the door to Nico’s office before he spoke.

“I don't understand what's happening.”

Nico looked up from his phone as if nothing had happened. Relax. This is for you, too.”

Realization dawned on Jason and he looked at Nico with frustration and anger as the shock slowly drained his body. “Do explain.”

Nico gave him an exasperated look. “They were going to make Bryce chief.”

Jason nodded, his tone sarcastic. “Naturally I would have to marry you?”

Nico glowered at him. “And what's the problem? Like you were saving yourself for someone special?”

Jason ignored the sharp comments meant to sting. They stopped stinging after the first year. “I like to think so. Besides, what you’re doing, it's illegal.”

Nico seemed to brush off the comment. He didn’t even look up from his paperwork. “They're looking for terrorists, not for book publishers.”

Jason looked at him. “Nico.”

Nico didn’t look up again. “Yes?”

“I'm not gonna marry you.” Jason said firmly.

Nico sighed and put down his pen and folded his hands as he looked up at Jason slowly. “Sure you are. Because if you don't, your dreams of touching the lives of millions with the written word are dead. Bob is gonna fire you the second I'm gone. Guaranteed. That means you're out on the street looking for a job.”

Jason felt bile rise in his throat and he still wanted to punch Nico in the face. But that was more of a daily thing.

Nico continued. “That means the time that we spent together, the lattes, the cancelled dates, the midnight snack runs, were all for nothing and all your dreams of being an editor are gone,” he waved off the ferocity of his voice before and seemed passive once again, “don't worry, after the required allotment of time, we'll get a divorce and you'll be done with me. But until then, like it or not, your wagon is hitched to mine.”

Jason frowned, nodding slowly, and Nico sighed and went back to his work.

“Okay? Phone. We still have work to do, Grace.”

**  
  
**

When they arrived to the immigration office that afternoon nico tapped his Italian shoes impatiently until he looked over and bypassed the line. “This way.”

Jason looked back at the poor men and women who were looking at Nico with frustration and disgust. “Nico.”

Nico waved for him to follow. “Come.”

Jason pointed to the people who had waited patiently. “That's the line.”

The clerk at the front desk moved a customer along and spoke, “Next, please.”

Nico weaseled his way into the slot. “Just-” he saw a man leave an office and turned to the clerk, “Sorry, I need to ask him something.”

Nico went up to the man, holding out a file. “I need for you to file this fiancée visa for me, please.”

The man was fairly tall, with sickly pale skin, cold eyes, and blonde hair that seemed nearly white. He grimaced as he took the file.

The man looked at it and then back at them. “Mister di Angelo?”

Nico nodded. “Yes.”

The man frowned. “Please, come with me.”

They sat in a small office with the blond man behind a desk and Jason and Nico sat beside one another.

“Hi. Hello.” Nico said curtly, as though he was in a rush and wanted to get this out of the way.

Jason nodded to the man. “Hello.”

The man leaned forward and placed his folded hands on his desk. “Hi. I'm Octavian. Mr. Octavian Augustus.”

Nico nodded. “Hi.”

Octavian turned to Jason. “And you must be Jason.” He gave Jason a suspicious look.

He turned to Nico. “And you must be…”

“Nico.” Nico finished.

Octavian nodded. “Nico. right, well… Sorry about the wait. It's a crazy day today.”

Nico nodded rapidly. “Of course, of course. We understand. I can't tell you how much we appreciate you seeing us on such short notice.”

Octavian nodded, narrowing his eyes at them. “Okay. So, I have one question for you,” they both looked at him in rapt attention, “are you both committing fraud to avoid his deportation so he can keep his position as editor in chief at Colden Books?”

Jason wanted to scream that this psychopath was having him blackmailed and extorted, but all that came out was, “That's ridiculous.”

Nico looked at him. “Where did you hear that?”

Octavian looked down at a notepad. “We had a phone tip this afternoon from a man named…”

Nico looked at him knowingly. “Would it be Bryce Lawrence?”

Octavian nodded, reading the words on his pad. “Bryce Lawrence.”

Nico sighed sympathetically and Jason wondered if people ever saw through him the way that Jason seemed to. “Bryce. Poor Bryce. I am so sorry. Bob is nothing but a disgruntled former employee. And I apologise. But we know you're incredibly busy. If you just give us our next step, we will be out of your hair and on our way.”

Nico rose, Jason hesitating in his seat and Octavian inclined for him to sit back down. “Mister di Angelo, please,” Nico sat back down and Octavian turned his cold eyes and ugly grimace on them, “let me explain to you the process that's about to unfold.”

Octavian looked at them both in turn. “Step one, will be a scheduled interview. I'll put you each in a room, and I'll ask you every little question that a real couple would know about each other.”

Octavian continued, tapping his pencil and to Jason he looked almost sinister. “Step two, I dig deeper. I look at your phone records, I talk to your neighbours, I interview your co-workers. If your answers don't match up at every point,” he turned to Nico, “you will be deported indefinitely.”

He turned his harsh eyes to Jason. “And you, sir, will have committed a felony punishable by a fine of $250,and a stay of five years in federal prison.”

He leaned back into his chair. “So, Jason, you wanna... you want to talk to me? No? Yes?”

Jason gulped, looking at Nico, who pleaded with an unspoken body language, and then he turned to those harsh eyes that unsettled him.

“The truth is-” Jason began slowly, looking over to Nico again. _God what have I gotten myself into?_  “Mr. Augustus, the truth is… Nico and I are just two people who weren't supposed to fall in love. But did.”

Jason suddenly had a crazy thought and smirked before he began. “We couldn't tell anyone we work with because of my big promotion that I had coming up.”

Nico looked at him with widened eyes. He looked younger when he did it. “Promotion?”

Jason nodded, seemingly innocent. “Yeah.”

Octavian grimaced. “Your promotion?”

Jason nodded convincingly. “We, we both felt that it would be deeply inappropriate, if I were to be promoted to editor. . .”

Nico seemed shocked, his mouth slightly open. “Editor.” He said faintly.

Jason continued. “. . .while we were. . .”

Octavian seemed to buy that and continued. “So have the two of you told your parents about your secret love?”

Nico recovered, but for a moment he seemed almost pained. The expression disappeared with a wave of a hand nonchalantly. Jason wondered what that meant. “Oh, I... impossible. My parents are dead.”

Octavian looked at him. “No brothers or sisters either?”

Nico seemed to avoid everyone’s eyes. “Gone. Except for a sister who is currently traveling with her own fiancee. I haven’t spoken to them in a while.”

Octavian nodded and turned to Jason. “Are your parents dead?”

Nico spoke before Jason could do so himself. “No, his are very much alive.”

Jason nodded. “No, very much.”

Nico nodded along with him. “Very much. They're... Well, we were gonna tell them this weekend. Gammy's 90th birthday, and the whole family's coming together. We thought it'd be a nice surprise.”

Jason turned to him in shock. Nico was going to kill him with all the shock and heart attacks he seemed to be getting today.

Octavian looked at them. “Where is this surprise gonna take place?”

Nico waved a hand again. “At Jason's parents' house.”

Octavian looked at Nico with an eyebrow raised. “Where is that located again?”

Nico stuttered for a moment, lapsing in the story that he turned to Jason in a panic. “Why am I doing all the talking? It's your parents' house. Why don't you tell him where it is. Jump in.”

Jason gave a small smile and watched Nico carefully as he spoke. “Sitka.”

Nico nodded as though he understood what that meant. “Sitka.”

Jason wanted to see his face, so he spoke again. “Alaska.”

Nico nodded before he turned to Jason with a shocked expression. “Alaska?”

Octavian frowned. “You're gonna go to Alaska this weekend?”

Jason didn’t even wait for Nico’s permission or orders to speak. Jason was tired of being his lapdog. “Yeah.”

Nico played it off well and shook his head. “Yes, yes. We are going to Alaska. Alaska, that's where,” he reached up and ran his hands up Jason’s neck and the contact was cold, but Jason seemed to grow warmer.

Nico spoke in the sickly sweet voice. “That's where my little,” Nico frowned in disgust, “that's where my Jason's from.”

Octavian looked at him for a moment, eyes narrowed and reminded Nico of a snake’s eyes watching him too closely. “Okay. Fine. I see how this is gonna go. I will see you both at 11.00 Monday morning for your scheduled interview, and your answers better match up on every account.”

**  
  
  
**

They stood walking down the street from the immigration offices as Nico went back to tapping on his phone. Jason didn’t follow behind him, rapt to serve him like a slave. His footfalls were slow, sluggish.

 _I can’t believe I just did that. Why did I do that? I don’t even like the guy._  Jason was in deep. Prison. He could go to prison. Why would he sacrifice committing a felony for someone he imagined poisoning in his sleep.

Nico tapped on his cellphone and turned to Jason. “Okay... so, what's gonna happen is we will go up there. We'll pretend we're boyfriends, tell your parents we're engaged.”

Nico looked up briefly from his phone. “Use the miles for the tickets. I guess I will pop for you to fly first class. But make sure you use the miles. If we don't get the miles, we're not doing it. Please confirm the vegan meal. 'Cause last time they actually gave it to a vegan, and they forced me to eat this clammy, warm, creamy salad thing, which was-” Nico looked up and snapped his fingers when he noticed Jason just stood there.

He was shell shocked from what he had just done.

Nico sighed in frustration. “Hey, I'm. . .Why aren't you taking notes?”

Jason frowned and turned to him. “I'm sorry, were you not in that room?” His voice was angry.

Nico didn’t seem to catch on. He just continued to stare. “What? What? The thing you said about being promoted? Genius! Genius. He completely fell for it.”

Jason glowered. “I was serious. I'm looking at a $250,000 fine and five years in jail. That changes things.”

Nico raised an eyebrow. “Promote you to editor? No, no way.”

Jason sighed and began to walk past him. “Then I quit, and you're screwed. Bye-bye, Nico.”

Nico stood watching him walk away in shock. “Jason!”

Jason didn’t turn back. He was already thinking about all the other jobs he would have to apply for. “It really has been a slice of heaven.”  _Not._

Nico finally kicked it into gear and ran after him. “Jason, Jason! Fine, fine. I'll make you editor. Fine.”

Nico continued, staring at Jason in defeat. “If you do the Alaska weekend and the immigration interview, I will make you editor. Happy?”

Jason looked at him. “And not in two years. Right away.”

Nico rolled his eyes and huffed. “Fine.”

Jason continued. “And you'll publish my manuscript.”

Nico narrowed his eyes at the extortion but relented. “Ten thousand copy first…”

Jason pushed. “Twenty thousand copies, first run. We'll tell my family about our engagement when I want and how I want. Now, ask me nicely.”

Nico seemed to be thrown for a loop and frowned at him. “‘Ask you nicely’ what?”

Jason gave him a look of fake innocence. “Ask me nicely to marry you, Nico.”

Nico narrowed his eyes and looked at Jason with a look of frustration. “What does that mean?”

Jason nodded. He enjoyed this. He was going to. Being told what to do immediately after coming from a home that had done the same had made him a bit bitter, but he didn’t mean any real harm by it. He just loved messing with Nico.

“You heard me. On your knee.”

Nico stared at him for a moment before he relented. “Fine.”

He got down on one knee on the dirty New York City sidewalk as bystanders stared at them. “Does this work for you?”

Jason fought the urge to laugh out loud and lift the man from his position. “Oh, I like this. Yeah.”

Nico glowered at him. “Will you marry me?”

Jason chuckled. “No. Say it like you mean it.”

Nico sighed and took a moment before he started again. “Jason?”

Jason looked down, trying very hard to keep a straight face. “Yes, Nico?”

“Sweet Jason?”

Jason nodded. “I'm listening.”

“Would you please, with cherries on top, marry me?” Nico said in that sickly sweet voice.

Jason seemed to consider it before he nodded, breaking out into a huge grin. “Okay. I don't appreciate the sarcasm, but I'll do it. See you at the airport tomorrow.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you'd like to see more of this AU please mention it! Don't forget to comment other AUs you'd like to see too!


	7. The Phantom of the Opera

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay so for some reason this is the only French classics novel I haven't read???? So I must apologize to user Lyralee because I didn't want to embellish the story of the Phantom because of how good I know it has to be, but I tried! I swear I will probably edit this at a later date when I've read it, but for now, I am sorry I can't give you the entire story!  
> Enjoy!

_**Prompt:** "Could you do a Phantom of the Opera inspired AU? That would be so awesome!"_

* * *

####  [ ](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyralee/pseuds/Lyralee)

No one knew when the Phantom had come, no one had ever questioned it. He was as lucid as fog that clung to the streets, as incorporeal as the ghosts that everyone believed lived beneath the city. The Phantom was called just that because of the way he clung to shadows, how he moved through spots in spaces no one saw and moved quickly. No one was sure when he first came to the Opera House, but when he came they all knew. A feeling of unease settled into the Opera House the moment the Phantom had chosen it as his lair. It was the end of a time that would be known to many as Before The Phantom. The time that came after would be recounted by many and recorded only once.

The Phantom moved through the cellar of the Opera House, the stale air and the discolored lights that casted distorted shadows hid him the way he wanted them to. He belonged to shadows and moved among them as though they were old friends.

“Of course this is all speculation!” Piper said next to Jason.

That night Jason had been singing and acting in a debut musical at the Opera House. He had sung so beautifully that as Piper watched him she was overcome with the emotions she could recall from their adolescence and was enchanted as he sang with belting notes and danced with a litheness that seemed masculine and delicate at the same time. She decided that perhaps they could rekindle their old flame. They spoke for a while after the show until Jason asked about the rumored Phantom of the Opera, which launched Piper into a fabricated story about the man who lived beneath the Opera House.

Jason looked at the ground beneath his feet as though the Phantom was watching him. “Oh, that seems like quite the tale.”

Piper nodded. “Most certainly. But he is never known to show his face. I hardly think it matters.”

Jason looked at her with a questioning face. “Pardon?”

Piper leaned in and whispered. “It’s been said that he had made some demands and threats to the managers of the Opera House.”

Jason’s eyes widened. “Oh my! Isn’t that dangerous?” 

Piper shrugged and fanned herself. “I’m not quite sure, but no harm has been wrought yet.”

####  **  
**

She spoke too soon. 

The following month as the Opera House prepared for a production of Faust the Phantom prepared beneath them, writing out his demands. He slid the letter under the door of the main manager’s office and disappeared, not a soul having seen him. 

That evening as Jason and Drew Tanaka prepared and were assigned roles the management brought out the letter. 

“He’s made an impossible demand! We cannot have the prima donna played by a man!”

Everyone turned to Jason, as he was the main male lead it was sensible that he would be the one they turned to.

Leo, the executive manager, looked at Drew. “Miss, you will remain the part of prima donna.”

Drew nodded and smirked haughtily at the others until she turned to Jason. 

“It does seem strange, sir, that the Phantom wanted you as the replacement. I wonder if you are not corroborating with the man.”

Jason furrowed his brow and turned to the others who looked at each other as if they were considering it.

“Surely you cannot be serious! I am a man. I have no desire to play the prima donna. Don’t be ridiculous.”

The other actors nodded and seemed placated as they went back to their rehearsals. Drew eyed him suspiciously.

####  **  
**

The Phantom lurked on the scaffoldings that stood above the stage. He frowned as they moved and worked, this had not met his demands.

The day they opened the Opera House as Drew stood across stage Jason and Leo watched closely, looking for any signs that the Phantom might try to disrupt them. Half way Jason had done his lines spectacularly, but he had been so focused on his lines and watching for the Phantom that he didn’t notice as Drew clutched her throat and no sounds came out. Above her in the shadows, the Phantom loomed over her. She screamed but the sounds died in her throat. He grinned at her menacingly and was taking off the scaffolding to finish his work. He would show them why they must fear him.

Jason watched she point to the ceiling in horror and when he looked up there was no one in sight. _Hmmm, strange._

Just as he was leading Drew away, tears in her eyes, there was a commotion from the front seats of the Opera House.

“The Phantom!” Someone screamed, and they ran out of their seats.

The Phantom grinned, the mask covered a great portion of the sinister grin as he cut the cable cords from the chandelier.

It swung down and into the audience as they screamed and scampered away, leaving the Opera House in hysteria. When it made contact with the empty chairs it shattered into even smaller remnants than the crystals. Leo cursed as he heard a booming voice speak from somewhere above them. Jason stopped in his tracks as he heard the booming voice, but Drew was taken away off stage somewhere behind the stage to be taken care of.

“Now you know what lengths I will go to, manager. I will foil every play, wrong every right, and destroy every last one of your actors until you meet my demands or this Opera House ceases to exist.”

And then it was silent.

Jason went over to Leo who had his head in his hands.

“Sir. . .”

Leo sighed heavily. “I should have listened. I should have. He’s made one of my best actresses lose her voice! Oh, and the chandelier! How will I get people to come back when that wretch is terrorizing them?”

“Jason!” Someone called.

Piper was standing in the doorway of the Opera House. Jason ran over to her and shook his head.

“Piper. What are you doing here? It isn’t safe for you!”

Piper shook her head. “I had to make sure you were all right. I was worried about you.”

Jason nodded. “I am fine. Would you like me to escort you home?”

Piper just shook her head. “No, I am fine, Mr. Grace. I came to see if perhaps you had been injured which I prayed against, and to see that you are all right.”

Jason nodded. “Well, Ms. McLean, I am fine and I should bid you good day so that I might go back to helping my fellow thespians.”

Piper nodded and left. Jason walked down the aisle of the rows of seats when suddenly someone appeared in front of him. He nearly jumped out of his skin.

“Phantom.”

The Phantom had a long cape, but dressed in noir costume, a suit that was impeccably pressed. This would have made him charming, with the short undercut of black hair slicked back and the single brown eye Jason could see. But the mask, the mask that covered half his face, was what made him more eerie. What he had looked to be alabaster white for the mask that covered up a fair portion of his face and his smile, the one directed at Jason, looked sinister. Jason saw those cold eyes and found them empty.

They were the last thing he saw as the Phantom crept forward, cloth in hand, and Jason was passing out. He wondered if he had screamed for help or not.

####  **  
  
**

Jason woke up to find that he was no longer in the Opera house, but in a closed room with a door, and when he rose he looked around for a weapon to defend himself, but found nothing. He went to the door and opened it.

Across from him there was wide open space and the Phantom ate at a table that had breads and cheeses and fruits and meats set out leisurely. Jason looked around for other exits as if to escape but the Phantom stabbed another piece of fruit and sighed.

“If you are looking for an escape route, Jason Grace, you will not find one.”

Jason looked at the simple brown stones, at the lining of the floor and the wooden panels of floors in what looked to be a bigger cellar than Jason had ever imagined.

He finally turned to the man, slick hair, cold eyes. They were alone, but he was alive.

“Who are you? Where am I?” He demanded.

The Phantom bit into a piece of fruit and looked at him, eyes analyzing him, and he felt as naked as the day he had been born.

“Well, I kidnapped you. And I am Nico, or as some of your friends have taken to calling me, the Phantom of the Opera.”

Jason promptly fainted.

####  ****  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DUN DUN DUN.  
> To be continued????? . . .


	8. To Each His Own-Pt. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the author wonders why the hell she always has these two queers sleeping on the bed and sleeping on the floor, as if that creates romantic tension.  
> Anywho! Since it was so popular! Here's the second part of the Proposal AU! Enjoy! 
> 
> Disclaimer: Majority of the dialogue is script from the movie WHICH I DON'T OWN OR CLAIM RIGHTS TO.

Jason and Nico settled into first class twenty minutes before take off was designated and as they settled in Jason decided to take a nap while Nico worked on his computer. When he woke up from the nap he pulled out two folders. They had about forty minutes until their descent.

“So, these are the questions that INS is gonna ask us. Now, the good news is, is I know everything about you, but the bad news is that you have four days to learn all this about me. So, you should,” Jason looked over to find Nico was already firing off messages from his phone and had completely ignored the files, “probably get studying.”

Nico looked at him incredulously. “You know all the answers to these questions about me?”

Jason gave him a baleful look. “Scary, isn't it?”

Nico looked at him momentarily. “A little bit. What am I allergic to?”

“Pine nuts,” Jason said simply, “and the full spectrum of human emotion.”

Jason smirked good naturedly but it was Nico’s turn to give him a baleful look. “Oh, that's... that was funny. Here's a good one. Do I have any scars?”

Jason was quick to respond. “I'm pretty sure that you have a tattoo.”

Nico froze for a moment before he went back to his phone and replied sarcastically. “Oh, you're pretty sure?”

Jason nodded. “I'm pretty sure. Two years ago, your dermatologist called and asked about a Q-switched laser. I Googled a Q-switched laser and found that they, in fact, do remove tattoos. But you cancelled your appointment,” Jason smirked, “So what is it? Tribal ink? Japanese calligraphy? Barbed wire?”

Nico gave him a sidelong glance. “You know, it's exciting for me to experience you like this.”

Jason chuckled. “Thank you. You're gonna have to tell me where it is.”

Nico shook his head quickly. “I'm not.”

Jason sighed. “They're gonna ask.”

Nico just shook his head rapidly. “We're done with that question,” when Jason continued to stare at him Nico said firmly, “we're done with that question.”

Even with having hated Nico so much, he knew when people wanted things to be dropped and Jason decided to indefinitely drop it. “On to another question. Let me see, let me see. Oh, here's one. Whose place do we stay at, yours or mine?”

Nico didn’t even bother looking up when he responded. “That's easy. Mine.”

Jason stared at him indignantly. “And why wouldn't we stay at mine?”

Nico shot him a look before he went back to his phone. Jason wondered what would have the guy so damned glued to it. “Because I live at Central Park West. And you probably live at some squalid little studio apartment with stacks of yellowed Penguin Classics.”

Jason was about to make a comment about Penguin Classics but a voice sounded over the intercom. “Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seat belts. We are beginning our descent into Juneau.”

Nico furrowed his eyebrows. “Juneau? I thought we were going to Sitka.”

Jason nodded. “We are.”

Nico looked at him. “How are we getting to Sitka?”

Jason ignored him in favor of holding on to something as the plane hit turbulence as it landed. “All right. Here we go.”

It turned out there was a boat they would have to take from Juneau to Sitka, which was smaller in comparison, but Nico had never seen cities this small to begin with, so it was all a mystery to begin with. They were quaint in a way that made Nico mildly uncomfortable, and earthy in a way Nico felt disgusted by.

When they landed in Juneau  there was two women standing by the airplane exit looking around. “Where? Oh, there he is!” The youngest of the two women said.

“Andrew!” The oldest of the women exclaimed.

Jason smiled sweetly at them. “Hi,” he turned to Nico, “right this way.”

“Hi!” He said as he wrapped them in a huge hug they both returned with gusto.

“It's so good to see you!” The youngest of the women said. She had light blue eyes and her hair, which was a dirty blonde color, was tied back in curls and pins.

“You're suffocating him, Beryl.” The oldest woman said. She looked to be weathering but she exuded a warmth and vibrancy Nico had never experienced. It felt too strange, too personal, like Nico didn’t belong.

She smiled at Jason. “Come here.”

Jason grinned as she hugged him and she smelled like cinnamon and things that reminded him of home. Home he hadn’t seen in five years. “Hey, Gammy. Gammy. How are you doing? Where's Dad?”

Gammy sighed, rolling her eyes. “Oh, you know your father. He's always working. Never mind about him. Where's your girl?” Her eyes twinkled mischievously.

Jason looked back to find Nico struggling to carry the things he’d taken with him. “He’s... right there. There he is.”

Gammy looked at Nico in his pressed suit, undercut hair falling into his eyes, and the expensive Italian shoes. “I guess the word ‘girl’ is inappropriate.”

Beryl smacked Gammy and gave her a frown. “Gaea.”

Beryl turned to Nico who was making his way over to them and smiled. “Hi!”

Nico turned to her and gave her a cordial look. Jason wasn’t sure Nico even knew what a smile was.

Gammy looked at him with a look in her eyes that said she had things in store for them.  “Hello.”

Jason put a hand on Nico’s back and motioned his hand to his mother. “Nico, this is my mom.”

Nico gave her a small smile that looked more like a grimace. “Hello.”

Jason nodded. “Yeah, great. This is my gammy, Gaea.”

Nico looked at the sweet old woman who was hunched slightly, but she smiled so sweetly at Jason. Nico wondered what it would have been like to have a grandmother as kind and sweet as her. Nico couldn’t understand why Jason left them. “Pleasure.” And even if he didn’t want to do this weekend at all, he meant that sentiment.

Gaea smirked at him. “Well, hello there. Now, do you prefer being called Nico or Satan's boytoy? We've heard it both ways. Actually we've heard it lots of ways.”

Nico’s eyebrows furrowed and Jason cleared his throat, hoping Nico didn’t put much stock into that comment. “She's kidding.”

Nico nodded and turned to Beryl and Gaea. “Thank you so much for... allowing me to be a part of this weekend.”

Beryl smiled impossibly wider. “Oh, you're welcome. We're thrilled to have you.”

Gaea smiled at them elfishly and turned to the car that was parked a little ways away from them. “Let's get you two back to the fort.”

As they drove through the town Nico looked at all the shops and stores and services that all read: _Grace Enterprises._ As they passed through the town almost all of the stores donned the logo seal and Nico wondered what the actual extent of his fake partner’s wealth was. Jason had never mentioned anything about this.

“Jason. . .” Nico whispered.

Nico whispered louder this time. “Jason,” when he turned and noticed that Jason had on his headphones he smacked him in the arm, “Jason!”

Jason jumped and looked at him. “Please, don't do that.”

Nico gave him a tight lipped smile and that sickly sweet voice. “You didn't tell me about all the family businesses, honey.”

Gaea spoke up from the front seat of the truck. “He was probably just being modest, dear.”

Nico looked out the window of the truck as they passed into the road that was paved beside the docks. “What are we doing? Shouldn't we check into our hotel right now?”

Beryl scoffed. “Oh, we cancelled your reservation. Family doesn't stay at a hotel. You're gonna stay in our home.”

Nico nodded, but he was frowning. “Oh, great! Great.”

Jason got out of the truck and went to the back of the trunk to get his bags. Jason turned to find Nico was pulling a huge suitcase out of the trunk when Jason had only his own average sized carry on and duffel beside him. Nico look back at him, seemingly oblivious. “What?”

Jason just sighed and began to walk away to the dock. “God. You're gonna wanna use your legs to lift that one.”

Gaea motioned to Nico as Jason walked over. “Jason! Help him with those.”

Jason looked back at Nico struggling to get it onto the dock, clearly not used to having to navigate hulking things. He gave a fake sigh of sympathy. “I'd love to, but he won't let me do anything. He insists on doing it all himself. Come on, sweetie.”

Jason wandered over to him and Gaea leaned over, whispering quietly into Meryl’s ear. “You see the shoes that broad was wearing?”

Jason took the suitcase easily over the ladder that needed to be climbed down to the dock. “This is the last of 'em.”

Jason saw the suitcase land in the water and shrugged, knowing Nico had brought his unnecessarily expensive waterproof suitcases. “Five second rule.”

Gammy pulled it out with ease and put it onto the boat. “Got it! Got it. That will dry right off.”

Nico leaned over the sidewalk that led to the boat loading dock by ladder. His eyes held a mildly panicked look. “I'm not getting on that boat.”

Jason shrugged and walked away to the boat. “You don't have to. See you in a few days.”

Nico glowered at him. “You know I can't swim.”

“Hence, the boat.” Jason said sarcastically.

“Come on.” Jason said softly. He looked directly at Nico and for the first time in the almost three years they’d been around each other Nico trusted him.

“Come on. Here we go,” Jason said as Nico lowered himself down the ladder, “looking good, boss. Take your time, though.”

Nico moved slowly and Jason turned to his mother and grandmother and gave them a look of sympathy. “He comes with a lot of baggage.”

Jason reached up. “Just gonna give you a little hand here.” Without thinking about it he grabbed Nico’s butt to support him as he came down the ladder and Nico jumped.

“Hand off ass! Off ass!” He nearly yelled.

Jason helped him by grabbing his arm and pulling him down the last few rungs of the ladder. “There you go. You're there. Congratulations. I'm a hundred years old now.”

He smirked as Nico huffed and got on the boat.

**  
  
**

When they pulled into a dock it was the dock of a small island just off the coast of the town.

“Here we are. We're home.” Beryl said sweetly.

Nico stared at what could only be described at a rustic mansion of sorts in shock. “That is your home? Who are you people?”

Gammy and Beryl only laughed good naturedly as Nico pulled his things out of the boat. He struggled to drag his luggage behind him as Jason and he made their way off the dock.

“Why did you tell me you were poor?” Nico said accusingly.

Jason shook his head. “I never said I was poor.”

“But you never told me you were rich.” Nico exclaimed.

Jason shook his head again, desperate to drop the subject. “I'm not rich. My parents are rich.”

Nico huffed as he dragged his luggage up to the house. “OK, you know what? That's something only rich people say.”

As they walked into the house an entire slew of people cheered and Jason turned to his mother in dread. He had hoped there wouldn’t be an audience to experience Nico’s overall unpleasantness.

One of Jason’s old friends he remembered that he still kept in touch with, Leo, found him and clapped him on the back. “Hey, Jason! Welcome home!”

Jason smiled at him sincerely but turned to his mom. “Hi! Mom, what is this?”

Beryl smiled sheepishly. “Nothing. It's just a little welcoming party. Is that a crime?”

Gaea grinned innocently. “Just 50 of our closest friends and neighbours. And all excited to meet you.”

Nico leaned into Jason and whispered. “Why didn't you tell me you were some kind of Alaskan Kennedy?”

Jason furrowed his brow and looked at him. “How could I? We were in the middle of talking about you for the last three years.”

Nico took a step back and just made a timeout sign. “OK, know what? Timeout, OK? This bickering Bickerson thing has to stop. People need to think we're in love. So let's…” He motioned for a stop signal.

Jason gave him a baleful look. “That's no problem. I can do that. I can pretend to be the doting fiancé. That's easy. But for you, it's gonna require that you stop snacking on children while they dream.”

Nico gave him an exasperated look. “Very funny. When are you going to tell them we're engaged?”

Jason looked around nervously. “I'll pick the right moment.”

A woman walked up to them and gave Jason a kind smile. “Hey, Jason. Hi!”

Jason smiled at the elderly woman kindly. “Mrs. McKittrick. How are you? Nice to see you.”

An elderly man showed up beside her and Jason shook his hand cordially. “Nice to see you, Mr. McKittrick. This is Margaret.”

Nico waved at them and then extended his hand out of politeness. They smiled at him and he gave him a neutral look of cordiality. “Hi. Pleasure.”

Mr. McKittrick looked at them. “So I always wanted to know, what does a book editor do?”

Nico was going to launch into a topic he actually enjoyed when another weathered man appeared.

“That's a great question, Louise. I'm curious to know the answer myself.” The man had a commanding voice, yet he dressed casually, as though he was a wealthy retiree.

Jason froze and Nico looked over to see what was the matter but he simply stared at the man with the salt and pepper hair and frown lines. “Hello, Dad.”

The man nodded once. “Son.”

Mr. Grace turned to Nico and Nico instantly did not like him. He hated the way he stood and looked at them as though they were something to be examined, and not his own son and his partner. “This must be Nicky.”

“Nico.” Nico said in a cold and neutral tone.

“Jove. Pleasure to meet you.” Jove said, though he sounded like it was a lie.

“Pleasure's mine.” Nico said, even though it wasn’t.

Mrs. McKittrick launched right back into conversations as though the cold exchanged hadn’t happened. Nico wondered if after three years people still treated this like a common occurance, how bad would it be. “So why don't you tell us exactly what a book editor does? Besides taking writers out to lunch and getting bombed. Now that sounds like fun. No wonder you like being an editor.”

Jove interrupted Jason as he was poised to speak. “No, Louise. Jason's not an editor,  
he's an editor's assistant. Nicky here is the editor.”

Nico watched Jason tense up, fists curled. Nico wondered what it must be like to have family alive that you hated. “Nico.” He correctly again, just as coldly.

Jove pointed between them. “So you're actually…”

Nico almost growled at the condescension in his voice. “Jason's boss. Yeah.”

Jove gave them a condescending smirk. “Well. How about that.”

Nico frowned at him before he turned to Jason. “I think I'll get a refill.”

Jason watched Nico walk away and turned to his father and frowned. “Charming. That's a hell of a first impression, Dad.”

Jove frowned deeply. “What the hell, Jason? You show up after all this time with this man you hated, now he's your boyfriend? We didn’t even know you were gay!”

Jason frowned deeply, his fists curling. Every time he came home it was always like this. “We just got here. Can we wait two seconds before we throw the kitchen sink at each other?”

Jove gave him a mildly disgusted look. “Just never figured you for a guy who slept his way to the middle.”

Without thinking Jason found himself defending Nico. “I'll have you know that that man in there is one of the most respected editors-”

Jove scoffed. “He's your meal ticket, and you brought him to meet your mother.”

Jason looked at him, a cool facade of disinterest passed through him and he did the only thing he had ever done. Found a way to shock and disappoint his father in such equal measure that Jason relished in the feeling. “No, no, no, no, no. He's not my meal ticket, Dad. He's my fiancée.”

Jove frowned. “What'd you say?”

Jason frowned at him, glasses slipped a few centimeters. “You heard me. I'm getting married. And I’m not gay, Dad. I’m bisexual.”

**  
  
  
  
**

Meanwhile Nico stood awkwardly at the punch and snack table watching Jason and Jove talk to each other in heated debate until a waiter with messy blond hair appeared right in front of him. “How are you?”

Nico nodded and looked over the blond’s shoulder. “Good, good. Thank you.”

“Care for some hors d'oeuvres?”

Nico shook his head. “I'm fine. Thank you very much.”

“It's a tradition.” The blonde man urged.

Nico looked down to find it was caviar. “I'm not a fish person.”

“You'll like it.”

Nico gave him a tight lipped smile. “You're very sweet.”

“I think if you'll just taste it.” The blonde man was shoving caviar into his mouth and Nico took it in his mouth to be polite.

“Thank you so much.” He said.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Nico heard Jason speak faintly, “I have a very important announcement to make. Nico and I are getting married.”

To which Nico promptly spit out the entire mouthful of food on the waiter. “So sorry.” He muttered.

The blond just chuckled and spoke as he walked away. “That's OK. It's wash-and-wear.”

Nico looked into the huge living room and Jason was nodding. “Yep. Honey? Where you at?”

He saw Nico move towards him and muttered under his breath. “Here it is.”

Jason smiled at him, a fake smile they both knew would never be directed at Nico if it hadn’t been for the circumstances, and wave him over. “Come on down here, pumpkin.”

Nico grumbled and kept a smile on his face as he made his way to the . “All right. OK.”

Jason tried to give him a wide grin of sincerity. “Oh, look at him. Look at him. Right there, ladies and gentlemen. There he is.”

Gaea seemed ecstatic. “Congratulations, Jason.”

Jason gave them a look he hoped screamed _t_ _his psychopath is extorting me._ “Thank you. Thank you very much.”

Beryl smiled at them. “Time to celebrate. Let's get the champagne.”

When Gaea and Beryl walked away Nico pinched him and whispered in his ear harshly. “So that was your idea of the perfect time to tell them we're engaged? 'Cause it was brilliant timing.”

Just as Jason was about to say something a girl came up to them. She was built well, wore casual clothes, and had feathers clipped into her hair.

She smiled at Jason softly. “Jason. Hi.”

Jason’s eyes widened and he forgot all about Nico beside him. “Pipes? Oh, my God. Hey, hi. Wow. How you doing? I didn't know that you were gonna be here.”

Piper smiled at him as though they were the only two in the room. “Your mom probably wanted it to be a surprise. So... surprise.”

Jason looked at her dreamily. “Right.”

“And-,” Piper suddenly turned to Nico with an equally kind smile, “we're being completely rude. Hi.”

Jason turned confused at first and then he remembered Nico was still by his side and he motioned to Piper. “Oh, God. This is my ex.”

Piper smiled at him. “Hi. I'm Piper.”

The realization dawned on him and he had to admit that she just oozed a kind of generous amount of caring and kindness. She wasn’t Nico’s type in all the ways that mattered but she was definitely someone Nico could see with Jason. “Oh, wow. Wow!”

Piper gave him a wave and looked between the two of them as she smirked. “You can call me Pipes. Well, congratulations, you guys. So did I miss the story?”

They both turned to her in confusion and spoke in unison. “What story?”

Piper gave them a mischievous look. “About how you proposed.”

Gaea walked in at that moment. “How a man proposes says a lot about his character.

“Yes.” Jason said softly at the realization that they hadn’t thought about this. _Stupid._

Nico grimaced. “Yes, it does. And you all assumed he would be the one to do it?”

Gaea and Beryl shrugged and Jason turned to him, putting a hand over his. “Dear, we both know you have about as much emotional range as a sea urchin.”

Nico grumbled but Gaea just smiled at them. “I actually would love to hear the story, Andrew. Would you tell us?”

“Yeah.” Jason said, and there were one hundred eyes staring right back at him, friends and family that all wanted to hear a story even Jason didn’t know.

Jason chuckled and hoped it didn’t sound nervous. “You know what? Actually, Nico loves telling this story, so I'm just gonna let him go ahead and do that,” he turned to Nico who had gone from shock to giving him a glare with only his eyes while his face remained neutral, “'Cause I think we should just sit in rapture.”

Nico looked around the room at the strange faces. So many he would never see after this weekend. He just had to get through this, even that prepubescent fear of speaking in front of people was rising in the back of his throat. “Wow, OK. Wow, where to begin... this story.”

Jason could tell he was stalling while he formulated a plan. Nico always thought before he spoke. Nico bit his lip. “Well. . .Wow. Yeah. OK, well. . . Jason and I. . .”

Nico’s eyes lit up and Jason was gripped with a small bit of panic, that same self satisfying look he’d had when he told the publishers he would be marrying him. “Jason and I were about to celebrate our first anniversary together. And I knew that he'd been itching to ask me to marry him,” something that, if they had actually truly loved each other, might have been true, “and he was scared. Like a little tiny bird,” Jason realized Nico intended to humiliate him and waited for the moment to jump in, “so I started leaving him hints here and there because I knew he wouldn't have the guts to ask, but…”

Jason cut him off and gave him a look. “That's not exactly how it happened.”

Beryl looked at him in confusion, instead of with a look of fond amusement on his face. “No?”

Jason shook his head. “No. No. I mean, I picked up on all his hints. This man's about as subtle as a gun,” Nico grimaced but Jason smiled at him sweetly this time, “Yeah. What I was worried about was that he might find this little box…”

Nico jumped in before Jason could stop him. “Oh! The decoupage box that he made where he'd taken the time to cut out tiny, little pictures of himself. Yes. Just pasted all over the box. So beautiful. So I opened that beautiful, little decoupage and out fluttered these tiny, little hand-cut heart confettis. And once they cleared, I looked down, and I saw the most beautiful, big…”

Nico was smirking and Jason interrupted him. “Fat nothing. No ring.”

Gammy frowned at him. “No ring?”

Meryl looked at him. “What?”

Jason shook his head. “No. But inside that box. . .”

He looked at Nico, who looked upset that his plan had been foiled, “. . .underneath all that crap, there was a little handwritten note with the address to a hotel, date, and time. Real Humphrey Bogart-type stuff. Masculine. Anyway, naturally, Nico thought. . .”

Nico exaggerated his wistful sadness at the fake memory. “I thought he was seeing someone else.”

Gammy watched them in rapt fascination. “What?”

Nico nodded. “Yeah, it was a terrible time for me, but I went to that hotel anyway. I went there and I pounded on the door, but the door was already unlocked. And as swung open that door, there he was…” Jason knew he was going to do it and he jumped in.

“Standing.” Jason said.

“Kneeling.” Nico said.

“Like a man.” Jason said.

Nico smirked at him before he turned and gave the audience a fake smile of peace. “On a bed of rose petals, in a tuxedo. Your son. Your son. And he was choking back soft, soft sobs. And when he held back the tears and finally caught his breath, he said to me. . .”

Jason cut him off in a rush. “‘Nico, will you marry me?’ And he said, ‘Yep.’ The end. Who's hungry?”

Piper chuckled and looked between them. “That is quite a story.”

Beryl put her hands over her chest. “Oh, Jason!”

Gammy smiled at them as if she had never seen anything better. “Gorgeous. You are so sensitive. Hand-cut confetti?”

Leo emerged and smirked at them. “Hey! Let's see a kiss from you two cuties. Give him a kiss!”

Jason looked at Nico and Nico looked back with a mild look of disgust. They nodded and leaned forward to give him an innocent back on the mouth. It was dry, but not entirely unpleasant and they pulled away as fast as possible.

Leo scoffed and frowned at them. “What is this? Kiss him on the mouth like you mean it.”

Leo began to chant, “Kiss him. Kiss him!”

Jason just sighed. “OK! OK. All right.”

“Here we go.” He said as if to better prepare Nico for the experience once again. If anything else Jason actually felt bad for Nico being subjected to this. Nico looked like he had a storm brewing in his brown eyes when Jason went in for the kiss. They kissed chastely again.

Gaea frowned and looked at Jason. “Jason! Give him a real kiss!

Jason blushed and Nico wondered if he was as red as Nico felt he was. “Gammy!”

Leo grinned at them impishly. “You can do it!”

Nico leaned in and whispered, his eyes still looked stormy and they felt that way. All those eyes on him. “Just do it? Let's do it really fast.”

Jason was about to protest and tell his family about privacy but at this moment, there was no work dynamic, no evil boss who treated Jason inhumanely and blackmailed him. It was Nico di Angelo, and for the first time in a long time Nico di Angelo looked scared. “Yeah. Okay.”

Jason nodded and leaned in and whispered. “Okay.”

He went in softly and but this time their lips were moist and Jason could smell the spices on Nico’s breath and impulsively he went deeper and Nico’s eyelashes fluttered against that sharp face of his and his hands found Jason’s waist. It wasn’t until Gammy and Beryl had exclaimed that they both pulled away. They looked at each other, speechless. And both as red as an apple.

“I'm so happy for you two! So happy! So happy! Let's get the champagne!” Gammy exclaimed.

Jason and Nico coughed. But Nico could forget the way Jason’s tongue had run over his bottom lip. Jason couldn’t forget the kinetic energy of a love formed from hate. He tried not to think about it.

**  
  
**

“So here we are.” Beryl said as she led them to a room with a panoramic view of the bay.

“This is your bedroom.”

Nico looked out of the window at the pinks and purples that casted light on the water. “Wow. Wow, this is beautiful. And the view.”

Beryl pointed to the queen sized bed in the middle of the room. “And here's the bed.”

Nico was decidedly less impressed with the bed. “Wow! Exquisite bed. Exquisite. So-” Nico looked around, “where is Jason's room?”

Beryl chuckled. “We're not under any illusions that you two don't sleep in the same bed. He’ll sleep in here with you.”  

Jason smiled at them and put both his arms around Nico’s waist. Nico resisted the urge to jump or rip his arms off and just smiled sweet as Jason said, “Oh, great, 'cause we love to snuggle. Don't we, honey?”

Nico smiled sweetly and patted Jason’s hands. “We're huge snugglers.”

Suddenly a little fluffy ball came racing and started barking at Nico. He turned around Jason’s arms as if they could protect him from the small dog. “Oh, my God. What is it?”

Jason dropped his hands and picked up the dog and began to cuddle it.

Beryl chuckled again. “Calm down, Kevin.”

Jason smiled at the dog as he pet it. “You are cute. Who is this?”

Beryl smiled at Jason. “ That's Kevin. I'm sorry, Nico. We just rescued him from the pound, and he's still in training. Sorry.”

Gammy grinned at him. “Just be sure you don't let him outside, or the eagles'll snatch him.”

Jason continued to hold the dog to his face. “No, don't you listen to her. She's just pulling your leg, isn't she?”

Gammy pointed to somewhere. “By the way, there are extra towels and linens and things in here if you need them. If you get chilly tonight use this,” she threw an afghan on the bed, “it has special powers.”

Nico raised an eyebrow as he felt the soft material the blanket was made of. “Oh, what kind of special powers?”

Gaea grinned maniacally. “I call it the Baby Maker.”

Nico instantly dropped it and put it at the foot of the bed. “Okay, well. Then I guess we’re. . . gonna be super careful with that one.”

Nico looked at the family that lingered in the doorway. “We'd better turn in. It's been quite an evening. So good night, everybody.”

“Good night.” Jason said.

“Good night.” Beryl said.

“Good night.” Gammy.

“Okay, good night, Gammy.” Jason said quickly, because even he wasn’t be forced to go here against his wishes, he was still exhausted from everything that had happened.

Gammy smiled. “Good night.”

Nico closed the door after them. “Bye-bye, now.”

They were changing and Nico spoke from the opened door of the bathroom. “So, you haven't been home in a while.”

For a moment Jason had been casually sitting in bed, and he could almost forget what had happened. But now he was here, with the boss he hated, and he frowned in the direction of the en suite bathroom. “I haven't had a lot of vacation time the last three years.”

Nico frowned. “Stop complaining.”

Nico looked through the door to find Jason laying on the floor. Nico suddenly grew very paranoid. “Don't look, okay?”

Jason just sighed. “Okay.”

Nico looked at him. “Are your eyes closed?”

“Completely.” Jason replied sarcastically.

Nico shuffled, wondering if there was any way he could hide his legs. “Are you sure?”

Jason nodded. “Yes, I'm sure.”

Nico took in a deep breath and scampered over to the bed. At the last minute Jason opened his eyes and gave Nico a look from his spot on the floor. Nico held his breath, waiting for Jason to say something, anything, about his legs.

Jason just sighed. “Those are the pajamas you decided to bring to Alaska.”

Nico let out the breath he’d been holding. He was just relieved Jason hadn’t noticed the scars on his legs. He’d only criticized the silk black boxers that Nico had brought with him to Alaska.

He lashed out with a sarcastic response impulsively. “Yes, because I was supposed to be in a hotel alone. Remember?”

Jason sighed and closed his eyes. “Can we just go to sleep?”

Nico frowned at him. “Fine.”

“Great.”

Nico fidgeted as the sun blasted him through the windows. He tried to find a comfortable position to sleep in but found that he couldn’t. He sighed in frustration. “Well. Looks like I won't be getting much sleep with the sun streaming in.”

Jason silently clicked a button on a remote and the shades drew themselves automatically.

“Thank you.” Nico said quietly.

**  
  
**

Nico woke with a start when his phone began to ring. He heard it ringing and looked over the bed at Jason. “Jason. Phone.”

Jason just hummed in his sleep.

“Jason!”

The phone continued to ring. “Crap. Jason, Jason, phone.”

Jason turned over and Nico almost shook his awake. “Jason! Jason, where is it?”

“Laptop bag, side pocket.” Jason said groggily.

Nico took his phone and ran out of the room in a robe and pajama long johns. “Hello. Hello? Hello. Frank! Frank, darling. Darling, Frank. Are you there? Hello? Hello? Oh, crap. I have horrible service, Frank. Give me just one minute.”

Nico made his way to the front door, on his way bumping into Beryl.

She giggled. “Oh, my God! Nico!”

Nico gave her a sickly sweet smile. “One... one minute,” he turned to his phone, “Frank, hold on just a second.”

Nico made his way outside and began to talk with Frank again. “Frank, hold on. No, no, no, no. Frank. Frank, I'm sorry you feel I pressured you into doing Oprah, but. . . Of course I want you to be happy. Yes, yes. Frank. Frank. Frank, darling. Frank? It's going to be fine. I can just call them and I can cancel. You are... you are so right, Frank. Yes, Frank, of course I'm listening to you. Yeah... yes. I love listening to you, Frank.”

Kevin the dog ran over and began to bark at Nico. He grimaced and pointed a finger at him. “Sit. Sit.”

“No, not you, Frank.” Nico said quickly.

“No, no. Frank, if I may get down to it, okay, I think it would be a mistake to back out. Because, Frank, for so many years, you have inspired many with your beautiful words, and I feel that-” Kevin continued to yap and Nico covered the receiver to talk to the dog, “dog, I'm on the phone-” and talked back into the receiver, “I think it's time the world gets to enjoy your words as well. They are just so rich with passion and I think that we should all be privy to. . .”

He saw the eagle about a yard away from them and began to run towards the dog who was a foot away. He tried to stay on the phone. “And... Frank, I just…”

He almost made it. “I just want you to be happy, Frank,” he said frantically, then began to scream at the eagle, “give me that dog!”

He talked into the receiver. “And I need, Frank, for you to hold on just a second. Can you hold a second?”

Before Frank could say anything he was shouting as the bird flew away with the dog in his claws. The bird circled him. “Give me that dog! Come on! Come on, come on, come on. Come on!”

The dog fell out of the bird’s claws. Nico caught him and held him as Kevin just panted happily. Nico pet him once as he panted and got his breathing back to normal. “Okay! Okay, gotcha.”

Nico began to talk into the phone again. “Frank, Frank. Frank? So sorry, so sorry. So sorry. I dropped the phone. Now, listen, Frank. I don't want to sell you on anything, but this is your legacy, this book. And I think it's up to you to present your legacy to the world.”

The eagle swooped in and Nico rushed ro the porch, running in double time and trying to close his conversation quickly. “And call me tomorrow with your decision. And my phone is on all the time! OK, bye-bye.”

As the eagle swooped in and Nico reached up to shield the dog from the menacing bird, but the bird must have thought his phone was an offer and gripped it in his talons as he flew away and it was snatched out of Nico’s grasp. “No! Wait! No! No! No. No.”

Nico looked down at the dog who just panted happily in his arms. He offered up the dog with his arms extended. “Take the doggy. Look at the doggy. I need that phone. Take the dog. Take the dog. I need that phone! Here. Take the dog.”

Gaea and Beryl both looked on from the window, watching Nico shake the dog and shout in glee. They had no idea it was out of desperation.

“Is that cute or what?” Gammy said.

Beryl nodded and giggled. “I know.”

Jason emerged and looked over to where his mother and grandmother were standing. “Morning, guys. Have you seen. . .” He trailed off when they pointed to Nico outside, waving the dog around frantically.

Beryl smiled. “He's playing with Kevin. We thought he didn't like him.”

Gaea smiled up at him. “Will you go get him, Andy? We have a whole day planned for him, and he needs to get ready.”

Beryl nodded. “Yeah. Tell him we have a big surprise for him.”

Jason nodded and went out to find Nico staring at where the eagle had disappeared. “Look! Give me my phone. Come on. Please, just give me my phone.”

Jason just shook his head and pulled Nico into a hug to calm him down. “Come on. Right here.”

Nico frowned and stood stiff. “What the hell are you doing? Oh, my God. Your grandmother was completely right. The eagle came and tried to take the dog. But then I saved him. Then it came back, and it took my phone.”

Jason held him at arms length. “Are you drunk?”

Nico’s eyes widened in worry and frustration. “What? No! I'm serious. He's got my phone, and Frank's calling me on it.”

Jason pulled him into a hug again and Nico returned it halfheartedly. “Relax, all right? We'll order another phone, same number. We'll go into town and get it.”

“Really?”

“Okay? Yeah. Well, you can go then. You have to get ready.”

Nico pulled himself out of Jason’s arms. “For what?”

Jason shrugged. “Going out with Mom and the girls.”

Nico crossed his arms. “I don't wanna go.”

“Shopping, sightseeing. And a surprise.”

Nico let his arms fall to his side. “I hate shopping. I hate sightseeing.”

“You'll love it. You're going.”

Nico furrowed his eyebrows. “I don't wanna go. I'm not.”

“You're going.,” jason said and he moved in closer to Nico, “you are. Give me a hug.  
Don't want them to think we're fighting.”

Nico flinched and backed away a bit. “I don't want to touch you. No, I. . .”

But Jason was already wrapping his warm arms around Nico. “Come on. Hug time. Hug time.”

Nico fidgeted. “I don't wanna. . . Jason.”

Jason rested his chin on Nico’s head. “There we go. Yeah, that's nice,” and to really bring it home to embarrass Nico he reach down with his hands and put them over Nico’s ass, “yeah. That's nice. There we go. Isn't that nice?”

Nico leaned in to whisper into Jason’s ear. “Yeah. If you touch my ass one more time, I will cut your balls off in your sleep. Okay?”

Jason nodded, but he had a smirk. “Yeah. There you go. All righty now. So we clear on that?”

Nico nodded and stomped off. “Yeah.”

Jason just shook his head and watched Nico stomp away in amusement and something that seemed akin to hate, but a little less negative.

“Yeah. Such a good fiancée.”  
  


 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to be jasico trash with me, just follow me and message me on tumblr at:
> 
> cuzfuckyouimawriter.tumblr.com


	9. Bite Me (I Promise I Won't Mind)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So an anon asked for a Vampire AU! And I have delivered it on the eve of Halloween! It's the obligatory Halloween story! I hope that everyone enjoys it!
> 
> In which Jason and Nico and the gang are vigilantes and maybe Jason has no idea how any of this happened but he can't bring himself to regret it.

_**Prompt:** Could you do a vampire au, you can do it however, there's so many ways to pull it off! Thanks_

 

* * *

**  
  
**

Jason wasn't sure how any of this happened, but he couldn't bring himself to regret it even a little bit. Here's how the story goes:

 

The first thing Jason was expecting when he went to the park at three in the morning was not a guy sucking on another guy’s neck.

He let out a tiny gasp and the guy latched into the other guy’s neck swiveled to meet his gaze. His mouth was bloody and the other guy’s neck was bleeding. Now, Jason didn’t kinkshame, hey what you do in your own home is your business, but that. . . was definitely not right. And Jason hunted vampires, vampires went in for the kill. They didn’t gyrate and moan and do whatever it was those two were doing. It was different. Not to mention on average vampires weren’t as small as the boy who latched on to the other’s neck. He backed away quickly with his arms raised in surrender, feeling like this was more of a sexual scene than a supernatural murder.

“Oh, uh, yeah. . . I’m just gonna. . .”

And he took off running faster than an NBA superstar. Jason was kind of proud of himself. But somehow, he couldn’t manage it and the guy, who looked so frail and sickly he looked more like a boy, caught up to him. Jason wasn’t even able to outrun an anemic, sick-looking kid. Just sad.

He jumped. “Wow, okay, so I take it you want to talk about what just happened back there?”

The boy looked about a foot shorter than Jason, with hair that covered his eyes and made him look even more sickly with its clumped sections.

“How much did you see?”

Jason just shrugged. The boy’s voice sounded like he was past the cusp of puberty but his voice hadn’t caught up.

“I mean, man, if you wanna bite people do it. What turns you on is none of my business.”

The boy raised an eyebrow. “You think people bite each other and suck blood as, what, a. . . a kink?”

Jason shrugged.

The boy sighed. “What’s wrong with people?”

Jason held up his palms. “Hey man, you were the one sucking on someone’s bloody neck.”

The boy looked at him, as if scanning him for weapons. Jason had never been under such scrutiny, but found that he didn’t really have anything to fear. The dark-haired boy looked as if he was considering how much to tell Jason.

“I needed it.”

Jason nodded. “Yes. That is a very human need. Sexual, erm, urges and all that. Can I go now?” Why had he gone to the park again?

The boy muttered to himself. “Human.”

Then he quickly stepped aside and let Jason pass. Jason walked past him easily and it was only when he had taken a few steps that he thought to ask the stranger’s name, but when he turned around the boy was gone. Huh.

**  
  
  
**

Jason went to school the next day, rings around his eyes. When he walked into his math class late Piper and Leo looked at him with worried expressions.

“You look like crap.” Leo said.

Jason tried uselessly to rub the sleep out of his eyes. “Couldn’t sleep.”

Piper looked at him with  furrowed eyebrows. “Nightmares again?”

Jason nodded.

Piper leaned in and whispered in his ear. “You haven’t hunted in a while. This is for the best.”

Jason sighed and went back to the lessons. When the school day ended and Leo and Piper were walking with Jason home Piper finally spoke up.

“Jason, I think you should talk to Chiron about the nightmares.”

Jason turned to her. “They’ll go away eventually. People tend to have nightmares when they hunt vampires.”

Leo looked at him. “I dunno man, Beauty Queen and I haven’t had any nightmares.”

Jason shrugged. “Look, I haven’t been sleeping well to begin with, that’s probably all it is.”

Piper looked around suspiciously. “Or there’s a coven in town. Remember the last time that happened?”

Jason shook his head. “Either way, we’re decommissioned, remember? We swore we wouldn’t get involved for another year. Until this school year is over.”

Leo grinned at him. “Unless they come to us. Then I have a whole bunch of new gadgets I’ve been wanting to use on those ugly bloodsuckers.”

Jason chuckled and they walked home. Jason’s nightmares and the boy had completely been forgotten in his mind. That evening while the Hunters sat around the table Jason finally remembered his encounter the night before.

“So I met a guy in the park last night.”

Annabeth looked at him from across the room. “Was he a shape shifter?”

Jason nodded and went back to cutting his food to pieces. “Nah. It’s funny though, because I realized that people have such weird kinks nowadays.”

Annabeth gave him a peculiar look and he went on. “Yeah, like, this guy was biting this guy’s neck and there was blood- oh. . .”

The entirety of their group was now staring at him.

He blushed. “Right.”

The first to laugh was Leo. He guffawed and howled and Piper giggled a bit and Annabeth and Percy at the head of their table just sighed.

Percy shook his head. “I’m disappointed, bro.”

Jason put his head in his hands. “How was I supposed to know?! He was making out with the guy too!”

Leo rolled his eyes. “As if they haven’t done that before.”

Thalia looked at him sympathetically from her spot next to Annabeth. “It’s fine. It’ll be fine. This city isn’t that big, you can find him again and kill him.”

Jason nodded.

**  
  
**

The moose was what really threw Jason off this time.

Okay, let’s back up a bit.

Jason had decided to forgo school for the last week to look for the dark haired boy.It had been the week before Halloween and before then they had to find the vampire coven, otherwise things might end up very badly. It was the night before Halloween and if they were to avoid a commotion, the boy needed to found. Jason was searching through the woods outside of town because he’d gotten a tip of seeing people around here recently. With luck Jason would be able to find the entire coven.

He found the boy in the middle of a clearing while he was searching the woods at midnight. The dark haired boy was petting. . . a moose.

He was standing by it, and brushing its coat, all the while cooing compliments.

“Hey, you’re the vampire boy.” Jason said, without thinking.

The boy gave him a baleful look and turned back to the moose, as if he’d already been expecting Jason.

“The name’s Nico. And can I just say that you are literally the worst vampire hunter in the world. The council would be disappointed.”

Jason looked at his feet and scowled. “You threw me off.”

Nico raised an eyebrow. “ _I_   threw you off? Or the fact that I was kissing a dude?”

Jason couldn’t believe he was getting back talked by a vampire. He was supposed to be killing him.

“Hey, uhm, do you mind stepping away from the moose? I kinda have to kill you.”

Nico looked at him, his hands paused mid-brushstroke. He looked at Jason for a moment and then shrugged.

“You don’t have to.” He said softly.

Jason knew the difference from compulsion and just talking, and Nico wasn’t using compulsion. He was talking in a way that Jason found he couldn’t argue with.

“Well, no, but see, it’s the day before Halloween, and for us, those are the two days when vampire attacks happen the most.”

Nico frowned at him. “Did you know that mortals are most likely to sexually assault each other because of the hectic atmosphere and be able to get away with it? Did you know that?”

Jason frowned, that thought made him uneasy, like he was fighting the wrong monsters. “No, I didn’t.”

Nico’s frown turned into a grimace. “No, you didn’t, because you and that little group of hunters of yours only focus on killing people you don’t even know. Funny thing, vampires are also people, asshole.”

Jason made an indignant noise. “Hey! How was I supposed to know?!”

Nico scoffed. “Please, your leaders tell you to jump and you say how high. The unfair hierarchy and prejudice against vampires is systematic and all you hunters are the enforcers of an archaic ideology that died out a long time ago.”

“Are you. . . are you arguing vampire and hunter politics with me?” Jason asked, slightly shocked.

Nico turned up his nose and frowned at Jason. “Yes. Someone has to let you all know these aren’t the Salem Witch Trials. God, it’s just like it was when we were in Missouri.”

Jason wondered how he had stumbled across the first politically aware vampire.

It also put things into perspective, wondering what he and his friends had been fighting for so long if it had been the wrong thing.

Jason looked at Nico. “Tell me about the people who are going to attack each other tonight and tomorrow night.”

Nico rolled his eyes and went back to brushing the moose, motioning Jason to come over and pet the moose.

“I’m glad you’re finally understanding who’s the bad guy here. Now here, pet him, this is Kevin, he lives in the woods and follows me around.”

Jason pet it cautiously. “O. . .kay.”

Nico grinned at him, a wicked grin that glinted with sarcasm but that held no malicious intent.

“Just wait until you meet Mrs. O’Leary.”

**  
  
**

“Wait,” Thalia said, “he wants you to have us join them and, what, basically become a band of rape-preventative vigilantes?”

Jason nodded. Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Piper, and Frank all gave him a look. The look more or less said that they thought he was insane. Jason got that, he kind of was.

“Yeah. His name’s Nico. I went with him and I even met the coven. They told us that as a sign of peace they’ll give us the address to their coven liar if any of them so much as step out of boundaries. I think we should do it.”

Thalia considered this. Annabeth furrowed her brow. “I want to, really, I do, but I don’t know if we can trust them.”

Percy turned to Jason. “Do you trust them?”

Jason thought back to Hazel and Reyna, and Hylla and Nico, all alone in the woods, but all with kind eyes that said that if they had been regular mortals Jason would have trusted them without a question. Nico had said something to him, _why are vampires any different?_    They hadn’t killed anyone, they fed like succubus and never killed. Hazel abhorred it, Reyna found it messy.

Jason nodded. “I do. I trust them.”

Piper sighed and looked at all of them. “I say we go with it. I think it’s worth a shot.”

Thalia nodded and got her belt of stakes and her bow and quiver and she grinned. “I can’t wait to kill and maim some assholes.”

Jason couldn’t wait to see how this would go.

**  
  
**

The first thought Jason had the moment he met Nico and his coven in the woods was about Frank and Hazel and Thalia and Reyna. _Oh no._

Jason introduced them all and he nearly gagged when Reyna smiled sweetly at Thalia and Thalia returned the smile in kind. Hazel had shaken all of their hands, giving them sincere smiles and when he turned to see her shake Frank’s hand his face was as red as a cherry.

Nico and Jason walked away to discuss tactics for the night while the others all got to know each other. Nico frowned from where they sat, at the edge of the clearing, nearly a thousand feet away from the group.

“Your friend, Frank, he likes Hazel.”

Jason nodded. “She’s sweet.”

Nico nodded. “I will never understand it. She’s so sweet, but hard on the inside. Don’t underestimate her.”

Jason nodded. “I wouldn’t. I know the kind of power vampires have.”

Nico nodded. “And your leaders’ second in command, Thalia, she’s way too interested in Reyna.”

Jason tried not to pay attention to that too much. “Yep.”

Nico looked at Frank and Hazel laugh together and sighed.

“That’s what I get for suggesting we mix with hunters.”

Jason made an indignant noise. “We’re not so bad!”

“Not _all_  hunters.” Nico mocked, but his voice had an amusing lilt to it, and he was smirking, so Jason let it go.

“So what are we going to do?”

Nico shrugged. “I have telepathy, so does Hylla. I think we should split up and cover the city faster that way. It’ll be easier to snuff out people who are already thinking about it before they get a chance to try it on anyone. Reyna has super sensitive hearing, so she can go with me. Hazel has the same talent.”

Jason nodded. “So you and I, Reyna and Thalia, and Leo and Piper, and Hylla can go with Hazel, Frank, and Percy and Annabeth?”

Nico nodded.

They got up and went over to the others.

“Got a plan, man?” Leo asked.

Jason nodded. “We’re splitting into groups and covering Manhattan. Annabeth, Hylla, Hazel, Frank, and Percy will go and cover the west, and Leo, Piper, Thalia, Reyna, Nico, and I will all go and cover the east.”

Everyone nodded.

Annabeth looked around at everyone. “You remember the rules, right? Vampires, no stepping out of bounds, hunters please don’t kill anyone today.”

Everyone took off.

Somehow Jason’s group ended up at a dingy club called Club 24/7. Jason was wondering if he should have rethought the wisdom of letting vampires lead him into anything. They got in easily when Reyna compelled the bouncer, something that had thrilled Thalia and terrified Jason. Leo had asked her to teach him and Piper asked her if it was like her charmspeaking.

They were in a dark club, the lights casted blue shadows and Jason looked over to find that Reyna and Thalia were already lingering by the bar, obviously flirting, while Leo was trying to flirt with a gaggle of girls and Piper was nowhere to be seen, but when Jason looked around again he found her by the Deejay booth. Jason looked at Nico, really looked at him for the first time. His hair was in his face, as it always was, but Jason noticed that he had an undercut, for the day his hair was swept in a messy array to one side. His jacket was dark leather and his shirt just read: _No._  Jason saw the blue lights reflect off his sickly pale skin and noticed the lines of his face, the definition in his jawline and the deep set frown he was wearing at the moment.

“What’s wrong?” Jason leaned in, and even with him yelling it sound muted, muffled, like wading through molasses.

Nico leaned into him. “A guy is staring at you. He’s the guy we need to get.”

Jason turned but Nico yanked him back. “No, don’t. He think we’re here together, he wants someone specific. Someone taken.”

Jason grimaced. “God, what a-”

Nico gave him a look. “Imagine reading his thoughts.”

Jason sighed and leaned into him, taking him by the waist and began to dance.

Nico pulled out of his arms, but stayed at arms’ length. “What are you doing?”

Jason looked at him. “We need him to approach him. We need it to look like we’re actually into each other. Come on, it’s one dance.”

Nico looked around, clearly uneasy with the thought.

Jason grinned at him. “I bet you were doing the jive in the fifties.”

Nico scoffed, but he was grinning, just like Jason hoped.

“Please, I was doing the swing dance when it was invented.”

Jason smirked at him. “Show me what you got, old man.”

Nico grinned at him. “You asked for it.”

**  
  
**

It turned out that Nico could really dance. At one point the dancefloor had cleared while Jason and Nico danced and with all the spinning and turning and dancing and music and pounding bass Jason had his breath taken away from the sigh of Nico, glistening with sweat and a big grin on his face. Jason was fucked.

It wasn’t until he went to the bar to get water that he noticed an older guy approaching him. He looked arrogant, disgusting. He set Jason off.

He ordered two drinks and gave one to Jason. Jason turned around to look for Leo and Piper and Thalia and Reyna but he couldn’t see them.

He turned around the man was smiling at him.

“Wanna ditch the kid, blondie?” The man leaned into his ear and whispered.

 _No._  “Sure.” Jason said, with what he hoped was a seductive smile.

They stumbled out into the alleyway and when the man went in for a kiss Jason pushed him away.

The man began to force himself even more and Jason shoved him against the wall. He heard something crack but the man growled.

“I got you a drink. What more do you want?”

A new voice spoke up. “See, the funny thing is, dude, that just because you buy a guy a drink doesn’t mean he’s obligated to suck your dick. Especially when you tried to roofie him.”

Leo had the tumbler in his hand, the liquid still splashing around in the cup. Jason felt relief and the man scoffed, snorting angrily.

“What are any of you going to do? You have no proof I did that!”

Piper appeared next to Jason and Leo. “Oh, sweetie, see the fun part about that,” she flashed her nails, “is that these exist. Know what these are? They detect drugs in alcohol.”

She reach into the tumblr with her index finger and swirled it around in the yellowish liquid. The pink lacquer turned a pitch black.

They looked at him and he still sat red-faced. “No one will believe any of you.”

Reyna appeared next to him in the blink of an eye.

“No, no one believe them, most likely. But no one will believe you if you were, say, bitten by a vampire and had every bone in your left leg broken and right arm broken.”

The man seemed to be afraid now. Jason hoped he was.

Piper sighed. “It’s a shame we have somewhere to be and _had_ _no idea a man was even here in this alley_ , _officer_. Goodbye now.”

For good measure Leo punched the guy in the face and they walked to the end of the alley, where Thalia and Nico waited.

Jason tried not to be too thrilled at the sound of a scream and the sickening crack of bones. At least he wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone, Jason was really relieved about that.

 

All in all they did great together. Percy said that they had gotten at least fifteen attempted rapists arrested, with substantial evidence and maybe, just maybe, a bit of pull in the police department. Jason’s group had gotten twelve attempted rape incidents.

When it was midnight on Halloween and the groups had gone off to continue the work from yesterday Jason and Nico had stayed behind, sitting in Central park, watching the kids as they skipped through the park with parents.

Nico watched children run past and a few of them had on black and red capes with plastic fangs hanging out of their mouths.

Nico sighed. "One day, I will let them outlaw vampire costumes."

Jason looked after the little girl who had been dressed as Dracula. "Why?"

Nico looked at him. "Because it's offensive! I don't look like that!"

Jason chuckled. "They're just lame costumes."

Nico sniffed and crossed his arms. "Just wait until they start making costumes, Jason Grace."

Jason shrugged. "I don't think they would. Besides, why does it bother you so much?"

Nico looked at the children that screamed in glee as they walked with their parents. 

"Because our kind get killed evry day, and mortals use us as a costume and that's okay. But being one isn't."

Jason nodded. 

He sat silent for a minute before he turned to Nico. "I'm sorry."

Nico sighed and just nodded. "Apologies accepted. 

“Why didn’t you kill me?” Nico asked, after the silence had dragged on for more than twenty minutes.

Jason shrugged. “You made sense.”

Nico snorted. “I could have lied, made an excuse that convinced you to let me go. I could have compelled you.”

Jason shook his head. “Wouldn’t have worked on me. You were just being honest, if only a bit whiny.”

Nico chuckled. “I could have killed you. I control ghosts, people fear me.”

Jason turned to him and gave him an honest smile, a wide one. “I don’t think you would have.”

Nico sighed. “No. I wouldn’t have, perfect Jason Grace, how could I have deprived the world of an epic hero?”

Jason scoffed and elbowed him. “Stop. You’re a hero, too, you know.”

Nico laughed and looked at him in mock shock. “Did a hunter just call a vampire a hero? Jason Grace! What would your ancestors say?!”

Jason shrugged and laughed in tune with Nico. “Probably that I’m going to hell.”

Nico smiled him, and only then did Jason realize how close they’d gotten, how they were leaning into each other and when Jason turned to hear Nico speak they were hairs away from each other. Nico’s eyes widened, but he spoke anyway.

“Don’t worry, it’s going to be a great ride.”

Jason leaned in to kiss him, and to be honest? It really was.

 

 

 

 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget that I am always looking for help in writing and looking co-writers! Not to mention questions and submissions are always welcomed!
> 
> Art was done by viria on Tumblr! Visit her tumblr to see more of her art, the art was all hers!


	10. My Worst Enemy Is My Memory-pt 2.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone asked me to continue this story and have Jason confess his love and here it is! I hope everyone enjoys this!

_**Prompt:** Is there going to be more for this story? jason has to confess!!_

__

* * *

**  
  
**

The second time that Jason met Bianca was in August.

Bianca coming back meant a lot of things. First, it meant Nico smiled more. Every month before the week or weekend Bianca was scheduled to come back to Nico he’d become jittery. His knees would bounce and he’d tap his fingers on nearly any surface. Jason could see his anxiety, but for once, it wasn’t nervous, it was excited. Nico would be so happy to see Bianca bounding down Half-Blood Hill and he’d get a wide grin on his face and run after his sister. Jason thought about how Bianca had promised to come back, and she’d kept that promise steadily.

Secondly, Nico wore hats. Well, in all honesty, it was just the one hat. The green Newsies cap he’d started to wear whenever it was sunny out, it became the way that Jason knew Nico was nearby. Nico got more color in his cheeks, more meat on his bones. He became more substantial. Now, even with Bianca back, there wasn’t much to be done about the way Nico already was. He still had nightmares that caused rings around his eyes, and sometimes being in camp too long made Nico restless, agitated, alone. But for the most part Nico’s life was a combination of balancing acts and juggling the things he wanted and needed with the things that came for him in the night, and Jason understood that. They never talked about the first time Jason had taken Nico’s hand, and Jason wasn’t sure that Nico wanted to. Nico fought so many internal battles daily and Jason didn’t want for their ambiguous relationship to be another one. Jason decided that whatever Nico wanted he would agree to, but things had to come from a basis of Nico’s own terms.

It was August the second time Jason met Bianca, because she had just stormed into his cabin.

“Where is he?” She said in a panic.

Jason looked at her above the rims of his glasses. “Who?”

Bianca looked around his room as she responded. “Nico. Where is he?”

Jason shrugged. “I thought he was with you. It’s the beginning of the month, he’s always with you.”

Jason tried not to feel bitter about that.

Bianca nodded and her eyes were starting to become frantic. “No, no, I waited at the top of the hill and he never came. The Hades cabin is empty. He’s not in the forest, he’s nowhere. Where is he?”

Jason got up quickly and put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. As she looked around his cabin, trying to analyze, to pick and pinpoint if Nico had ever been here he could see where they looked alike. Bianca had a deep olive skin tone, accentuated by freckles and her eyes were as deep and brown as Nico’s. Being the ages they were now he could have passed as her twin with how alike they looked.

“Hey, it’s all right. He does this sometimes.”

She shook her head. “But not to me, never to me. He wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

Jason nodded. “Then let’s go find him.”

He iris-messaged Reyna and Hazel both, calmly explaining what had happened, both had not seen him since his last visit to New Rome. Both had expressed a concern for Nico, and even offered to go with him, but he refused. It would be fine with just two people. Reyna and Hazel wished him luck and he went to tell his friends, who were all conveniently sitting by the dock.

“Nico’s missing.” He said.

They all turned to him and frowned. Piper looked at him. “Are you going to find him?”

Jason nodded.

They helped him pack and Percy offered to let him take Blackjack, which he accepted.

Bianca stood at the edge of camp, waiting for him. She whistled and a stag appeared. She mounted it like she’d been doing it all her life, as natural as the way Jason could fly.

“Where will we go?” She asked.

Jason thought for a moment and sighed. “I think I know where we’ll have to go.”

**  
  
**

They ended up going to the underworld.

Now, for a son of Jupiter who had a bit of a problem with constricted spaces, this was certainly not something he would have gone looking for, but he knew somehow that Nico had to be down here. He’d not seen Nico for the last week, but he had expected that by now. Bianca would come and he’d disappear to catch up with his sister and get ready to have her stay in his cabin while they tried to reconnect just like they used to.

Bianca looked around where they had entered through the closed labyrinth entrance to the entrance of the underworld and it had led them right through Persephone’s garden. It was vacant, since the summer solstice hadn’t happened yet, and they walked through quickly.

Bianca looked up at the palace that stood looming before them.

“That’s where my father lives.” She said it softly, in wonder.

Jason nodded. “I am pretty sure Nico is here somewhere.”

He took another step and in a flash of blinding golden light a figure appeared before them.

Hades stood before them in black robes and looked down at them.

Jason nodded, but didn’t bow. “Lord Hades.”

Hades regarded him silently, then he turned to Bianca. “Daughter.”

Bianca frowned. “Where is Nico?”

Hades frowned. “No words for your father?”

Bianca curled her fists and Jason understood what it felt like to want to lash out, like regular mortals did, but they couldn’t. Bianca kept her lips in a thin line.

“Father. Where is Nico?”

Hades just sighed and summoned a skeleton. “In due time you will find him and he will return home with you. But first I need to speak with the son of Zeus.”

The skeleton walked away, escorting Bianca, while Jason stood across from Hades in the threshold of the Palace of the Underworld.

“You’ve come to take my son.” Hades simply.

Jason nodded.

“Why?”

Jason shrugged. “He missed his visit with Bianca.”

Hades gave him a look like he was trying to look beneath Jason’s skin. Jason wasn’t sure what he’d find, but he wasn’t entirely sure he could hide it either.

Hades walked into the palace and Jason followed after him. At one point Hades waved his hand and a throne made of human remains materialized. Jason stood watching him sit until he spoke again.

Hades sighed. “Don’t you think that maybe these visits will only hurt him when he has to leave her again?”

Jason furrowed his brow. “He’d never leave her.”

Hades waved a hand flippantly. “Oh no, Nico’s much too invested to ever do that. But do you think she won’t die eventually? Or that Nico, may the Fates bless him, will live to be an old man and die? Then what? What will become of my children?”

Jason hadn’t thought about that, in all honesty. This was Nico’s simple pleasure. It was the one thing that brought light to his eyes and color to his skin. Jason had never really thought of the long-term, because heroes rarely lived long enough to know what dying of old age was. Jason knew that in New Rome whole families had done the impossible, but Jason thought about Nico, about Bianca, and what this could do to him. Jason also imagined Nico old, graying, face wrinkled, sickly, and it felt wrong. Jason couldn’t think of Nico of old and withering. In Jason’s mind Nico had always been young and vital and energetic, the Nico in Jason’s head was immortal and infallible in his innocence and good heart. Nico had taken residence in Jason’s heart, the only place he knew could fit all that love, and imagining Nico brittle and frail was not something that Jason wanted to contemplate, but thinking of Nico and Bianca and how things could end, it felt so helpless. There was no way to save them heartbreak. Jason didn’t hate Bianca, and Nico loved her, so Jason loved her by association. He didn’t want for their story to be a tragedy. There were enough Greek tragedies.

“I. . . I hadn’t thought about it.”

“Of course you did, you foolish boy.” Hades sighed. His words weren’t biting, but stated simply as if they were irrefutable truths.

Hades took a moment before he spoke again. “Do you think there is any way for him to have this without there being only pain in the end?”

Jason shook his head. Even going through the motions of looking at every eventuality things looked bleak.

“No, Lord Hades.”

Hades frowned. “And despite that you have let my son believe that this will last? That this temporary solution to his happiness is permanent?”

Jason clenched his fists. “I want Nico to be happy, in any way he can be.”

Hades nodded. “Even if it means that you must lie to him?”

“I’m not lying to him.”

Hades scoffed. “Oh please, son of Zeus, then you must be lying to yourself, because half of Olympus can see the way you are infatuated with my son.”

Jason blanched before he looked at his feet nervously, worried that the Lord of the Underworld might blast him right there.

“I thought we were talking about Nico and Bianca?”

Hades nodded. “Yes, but we are also talking about the people who love my son, who take care of him. Doesn’t it upset you that he has overlooked you in his attempt to reconnect with his sister?”

Jason shook his head. “I want Nico to be happy.”

Hades regarded him with something glinting in his eyes. “Does it bother you that my son was made happy by his sister, and not by your tireless efforts to heal him?”

That one stung. But hades looked as though he was sneering at him and realization dawned on him. Jason was being tested. Hades had worked tirelessly eons ago, and now, here, he was bitter. He stewed in the resentment and anger of efforts never validated. Hades wanted to see if Jason would end up the exact same way.

“Nico deserves to be happy, in any way that he can be.”

Hades dropped the sneer and replaced it with a neutral face. “You know, son of Zeus, my son struggles to be happy, and there are a great many things he wants, that perhaps you could give him. Despite what he may think my motives are, I want for him to be happy, and you could do a great deal with that.”

Jason furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”

Hades disappeared in a pillar of smoke and Bianca and Nico appeared in his place.

Nico furrowed his brow. “Jason? What are you doing here?”

Bianca looked at Nico. “He came with me looking for you when you didn’t show up today.”

Nico’s mouth opened in realization and shock. “I missed visiting day.”

Bianca nodded and began to make her way out the palace doors. “Yes, but if I am correct we still have the rest of the week.”

They began chatting as they made their way to the edge of Persephone’s Garden and Jason trailed after them, playing Hades’ words in his head over and over again. The idea that they could hurt each other, that Jason could be better for Nico than Bianca. But Jason couldn’t understand any of it. Hades had told Jason that he was better suited to take care of Nico than Bianca. Bianca who had done nothing but keep him safe and happy for such a long time. But when she left (and Jason tried really hard not to be bitter about that) she had left a hole in Nico’s heart and Jason knew better than to fill spaces that couldn’t be filled.

Nico turned back to him before they got on a pegasus together. “Are you okay?”

Jason hoped his eyes didn’t give away the way his heart felt. “Yeah, totally.”

Nico nodded slowly, most likely not convinced.

They rode back in silence and for the time being Jason pushed the things Hades had said to the back of his mind.

Jason bought a digital camera in the Camp Store.

It costed ten drachma and it was the first time Jason remembered buying anything that he was excited about. He had a brilliant idea about the camera and he was holding it in his hands while he sat on the steps of his cabin.

Piper sat next to him and smiled. “Thinking of picking up a hobby now that the world isn’t ending?”

Jason just stared at the camera in his hands with a faint smile on his lips. “Yeah, maybe.”

It was the last day that Bianca would be here until she went back to the Hunters. Piper went off to hang out with Annabeth and Jason stayed on the steps. Percy came over and smiled a goofy grin at him.

“Nice camera. Any ideas about it?”

Jason smiled back at him. “A project.”

That night Jason sat with Piper and Leo, just like old times, and there were jokes and laughs and songs that Jason didn’t know, but he felt his lungs fill with warm honey and when he looked across the campfire to find Bianca and Nico laughing loudly Jason abruptly stopped laughing. He pulled the camera out and snapped a shot of Nico throwing his head back mid-laugh. Bianca as hanging off his arm and Jason wanted to know why they were laughing, what made them so happy.

Jason looked at the photo before he went to bed that night, and he thought, in the dark and heavy weight of the night, if Bianca would look like this years after Nico was old and gone and if she’d miss him this way, time forever frozen this way in this exact moment. Jason thought of the way Bianca would look forever young, stuck immortally in her twelve year old body while Nico got older each year, and if he’d ever be able to do that to Nico.

The next morning Nico came and woke him up.

He looked down at Jason and smiled sadly, the same sad smile he gave when Bianca left.

“She’s gone until next month.”

Jason nodded and sat up. “That’s good, that she’ll come back.”

Nico nodded and pulled something from his hand. “She gave me a locket.”

Jason looked into his palm and it was a simple circle necklace with ornate carving and a simple silver chain. Nico opened it and on the inside Bianca was on the right, smiling and youthful.

Nico slipped it on under his shirt. “She said that she wanted me to always have her close. Next to my heart.”

Jason nodded and smiled at him. “That’s good.”

And they got back to the healing, to the mending of things Bianca would never understand or know about.

Nico let out a shakey breath and his shoulders sagged. “It’s just hard.”

Jason let him sit beside him. “It’ll get easier, and soon, there won’t be any hurt in your chest at all.”

Jason knew what weight in your chest felt like.

They were talking on the porch of the Big House the moment Jason realized he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Nico.

Nico had his arms resting on the railing of the wooden rail and he was looking out at the valley that lay before them, the place they had called home for so long.

“I’m going to settle down in New Rome.”

Jason hadn’t ever really expected that in all honesty.

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

Nico nodded, eyes looking wistfully aged, but so warm and bright. Jason knew that his eyes were bright, beside the fact that he was staring into the indigo sky of the sunset.

“I’m just so tired. I want to settle somewhere, have somewhere to call home. Hazel wanted me to come there. I haven’t had a home in such a long time.”

Jason knew the appeal. Walking through the cafes, the bookstores and going to school and finally leaving the Hero’s life behind. There wouldn’t be anymore fighting monsters at every turn, and there wouldn’t be gods and fighting wars that weren’t their own. Nico would get old.

Jason looked at the sunset and wondered if Nico saw a future as endless as the horizon.

“I think it’ll be good for you.” He said softly. _You’d be good for him,_  Hades had said.

Nico closed his eyes and there was a faint smile on his lips and Jason took out his camera and snapped a photo.

Jason looked at the Nico in the photo and the one that was right across from him and wondered how Fates had been so kind to make them both real. Jason was suddenly struck with the idea of Nico, graying, old, weathered, on the porch of the Big House. He would sit in a rocking chair and he’d be brittle, but he’d have those same bright eyes. And Jason, Jason would sit right next to him, hands clasped so hard that their brittle skin looked like it would crack if they let go, Jason would disappear if he let go. Jason thought of them surrounded by younger campers and kids that would be Jason’s grandkids, telling them about the war, telling them how he fell in love with a boy who was frozen in a photograph, telling them about the boy who was born from the sky and the boy who was born from the earth, and how they had created something else entirely, something even the gods couldn’t destroy. And the kids would watch them in wonder and Jason would show them the photograph in his pocket, weathered and yellowed, but of this exact moment. The moment Nico di Angelo had made peace with the demons of his nights and how Jason Grace had taken a photograph even if he’d remember the moment forever in his mind.

“I love you.”

Nico looked over at him, the sunsets and indigo skies painting Nico in lights that made his skin glow. “I know you do.”

Jason looked at the water of the lake that shimmered like a mirage. “Will you stay with me until the end? Hades said we’d be able to live until we were old.”

It was vain to hope that they’d survive that long, but Nico smiled at him as if Jason was the doorway to impossible things, like loving someone so fervently they willed themselves to survive against odds that were stacked against them, and living until they were old, and building a life from the rubble of memories that Nico had been trying for so long to fight to forget and forgive.

“I’d like that.”

Jason kissed him, a soft kiss, chaste, but it burned his lips and when he pulled away he thought of Nico, older, maybe middle aged, standing with Jason, and maybe, just maybe, they’d wear silver rings and promise, in front of the people they loved, that they’d love each other until they were brittle. Jason wouldn’t mind growing old if it was with Nico.

"Me too."

He held out his hand and led Nico to the dining hall. 

"Come on, it's time for dinner."

**  
  
**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always submissions and prompts are still being accepted as well as people who are interested in being co-authors! (:


	11. The Paperman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So recently Disney released a movie with all their short films and in this movie was a short film called Paperman.  
> It is probably the cutest thing I have ever seen, and someone asked me to do a prompt on it! Not to mention the main character looks so much like Nico I was nearly dying to write this!  
> If you haven't seen the short, I will try and hyperlink a source for you to watch it. Watching it before you read this is probably a good idea.   
> This is by far the one prompt I have enjoyed writing the most.  
> Enjoy!

Video Link: Can be found [Here](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB8QyCkwAGoVChMIld2Mg6D3yAIVBXY-Ch3t-ggA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymotion.com%2Fvideo%2Fxzt3vb_paperman_shortfilms&usg=AFQjCNEIeFSislbm-uY1Y8WFM_xPIacvMA&sig2=dXX-u_cP0leG-mhDuXtu5Q)

 

 

 

_**Prompt:** LET’S FUCKNIG DO A PAPERMAN AU_

* * *

**  
  
**

Nico was having an okay day. Not too special and not too bad either. He was fine, honestly. Except for the fact that he was going to a job he really hated. He’d gotten a job working in New York City for a financial company and he was a typewriter and filer. It was as glamorous as things got in the fifties, but he didn’t complain. He stood by the edge of the platform and simply waited.

The paper in his hands, oh it had other plans. The guy coming up the stairs was wearing lipstick, a prank from his roommate that he hadn’t bothered to fix. Jason didn’t mind, little lipstick never hurt anyone. Sure there had been weird stares, but Jason didn’t mind, he never minded. He was bright-eyed, excited for his secretary position in a company dealing with social work. He’d made his way to the platform when one of his papers flew free, that little sucker knew what he was doing. Jason chased after the stray paper, running up the stairs. The strange paper that flew out of nowhere smacked Nico in the shoulder for a brief pause, and then it began to fly away again. Jason ran past Nico, who watched him in wonder, until he caught the paper. The little bugger let himself be caught, because it had not been a coincidence that Jason’s paper decided to land right by Nico.

Jason gave him a sheepish smile and Nico just gave a small smile in return. They stared at each other for another moment and Nico found himself undeniably attracted to the man dressed in the sharp suit. They were both dressed to their corporate jobs, but Jason was warm and had a look of warmth to him. Then Nico’s papers decided that maybe it was time to push things a bit. Nico turned to smile at Jason and the paper found the perfect window for opportunity. One of them caught the wind from a train racing by at the station, flew free and smacked Jason right in the face. It left a perfect mark on the paper where Jason’s lips had been. It had taken away the gloss from his lips, but now it was on the paper.

Nico looked at him in shock and took the paper away from his face. Jason smiled at him, momentarily distracted by the tall man, until he saw the lipstick stain and chuckled. Nico looked down at the paper to see what made the blond man chuckle. He examined the way his lips had been perfectly printed onto the sheet of paper. He laughed at the perfect outline. When he looked up again to ask why that had been the case and to also apologize, Jason was already on the train. Jason sat down and turned back to smile at the stranger before his train jerked forward. Nico went to work, wondering, contemplating, how he might find this man again, when his boss dropped a fat stack of papers onto his desk. Files that needed filing, applications that needed to be filled, and so many other meaningless tasks in the form of repetitive and menial paperwork. Everyone else was working diligently. Nico stared at the single paper that sat alone by itself, isolated because Nico couldn’t get those blue eyes out of his head, the way the man had smiled at him sweetly even if he was a bit embarrassed.

Nico sighed and looked out his window. Just a few levels below his own in the other building the blonde man was sitting, waiting. Nico gasped and waved for him to get his attention. Nico’s boss coughed from across the room and he gave Nico a sharp, reprimanding look. Nico sat back down slowly, but still stared at the man in the seat. He looked down at his papers and got a brilliant idea.

He folded the paper, creased and frantic before the man left and he would never be able to find him. He threw the first paperplane, and it spiralled downward in failure as it drifted away to somewhere unknown.

Nico steeled his determination and began to fold another.

And another.

And another.

And another.

And he kept folding even as they fell to the ground, or hit the brick just right beside the open window where the blonde man sat. He kept throwing them and when he reached for another sheet of paper, he came up empty. He looked down at the pile of papers that had been there to find they were all gone. He’d used them all. He looked down at the single paper left. The one paper that was left was the one with the kiss on it. If Nico could get it to carry all the way across the way then he’d be able to finally get the attention of the blond man. There was no guarantee for Nico that the man even liked him, if he did then it was fantastic. But if he didn’t, well, Nico would worry about that when the moment came.

He flung the paper airplane as gracefully as he could and as it was carried by a breeze it flew stray away and Nico’s hopes were dashed as the man got up and left. Nico frantically looked down at the paper airplane that was flying away, the only evidence of the beautiful stranger ever happening that Nico had. He got up from his seat to go chase after the paper and the man, but his boss stood in front of him, a huge stacks to replace the ones that had been there previously.

He scowled and Nico just sat back down. The boss turned slowly, but Nico stood up and ran off instead. He hated that job, he couldn’t stand it. Consider this the resignation, he thought. The flurry of papers followed him as he raced out of the office and down to the lobby, running out of the revolving doors, crossing the busy street and almost getting hit by a bus, a truck, and two cars. He looked around at where he had seen the man leave through the building and he saw that funny little airplane sitting still on top of a mailbox, perched as if it was trying to tell him something.

Nico glared at it, furious for letting himself miss out on something he may have never been able to get again. Sure he most likely would have told Nico no if he’d asked about going steady in private. Nico couldn’t help but feel angry at himself for all that paper wasted and all those chances missed. He ripped the airplane from its perch and flung it angrily into the sky.

The little, mischievous thing caught the wind and soared, taking winds and it knew where it was meant to be. It landed with all the other paperplanes that stood in the alley, waiting, biding, until they would need to catch the winds again. That funny little paper plane with the lipstick stain moved, catching winds but looking as though it had a mind of it’s own. It shook and flew and flurried, and soon the other paperplanes that Nico had thrown that had somehow ended up here, began to fly, taking flight and doing what they were meant to do, get someone’s attention.

Nico, brooding and upset, was walking down the street. He was so distracted by his upset that he didn’t notice when people began to stare at him as the paperplanes followed behind him whimsically. One of them, the one with that damn lipstick stain, stuck to him, and then another, and then ten and then twenty. He tried to shake them off, but they just came back, even more forceful than the first time. Nico had no idea what was going on, because New York winds were never this strong. But he was being forced by the wind surrounding these folded paperplanes. And oh they were forcing him, they weren’t going to let him give up on love that fast.

The little plane with that peculiar lipstick stain whizzed off, flying with the winds as the other paper planes took the man and forced through the streets. Nico gave a surprised cry as they forced him to cross the street, and up to the train station, even though he protested and clung to the railing. The planes forced and shoved, and even if Nico knew how to fight them he was sure he couldn’t. The forced him back, forced him on the train back home.

And that little plane, so peculiar in its whimsical desires and lifelike demands, landed right in front of Jason as he was examining a little kiosk of flowers. He could bring some for his mother, maybe. He was thinking about it when the little paper plane landed right smack dab in the middle of a bouquet. Jason nearly missed it, except for the bright red lipstick stain on it. He plucked it from the bouquet and it flung itself out of his hands, catching the perfect winds and swirling around him enough to make him curious as to what it was doing. It zipped off, as if it was demanding that Jason follow and he did. He followed it as it raced up the train station stairs, he gave a delightful laugh and followed it. He had a feeling where it would lead him would be good.

Nico glowered as he sat down in the train, waiting for the stop to arrive. He tried to get up, but the paperplanes, as if sensing his stubbornness just forced him down again and he huffed as he sat back down and waited.

When Jason arrived to his stop he walked out and looked down at the funny paperplane. He waited for it to take him the rest of the way, but it stood limp in his hands. He shook it, as if to ask it to finish the job it had started, but apparently it’s job was done, because it was lifeless, immobile. Jason was still looking down at it when a flurry of hundreds of other paper planes came rushing by. Jason looked up to find the man from earlier, standing there. Jason smiled at him widely, and the man looked comic really, hundreds of planes stuck to his body, but he looked so happy to see Jason, and Jason felt the same.

Nico shook off the paperplanes and they flew away without a sound. Jason smiled at Nico, he chuckled, and Nico smiled back.

As the last paper plane flew into the sky, Jason handed the lipstick stained sheet to Nico.

“I believe this belongs to you.”

Nico just laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was I right or was I right? Just adorable, isn't it? It killed my precious heart.


	12. Leaving Without Good-byes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which my emo son finally gets better, and Jason is an angsty pissbaby who can't talk about his feelings

_**Prompt:** How about Nico couldn't really adapt to the demigod life at camp since he still received the odd looks so he left after the war and went on life as a normal student. He's doing much better now and has friends even but then, years later Jason is at his door or something? Thank you so much for even considering :D_ **  
**

* * *

**  
  
**

It only took about two months before the staring began again.

Nico hadn’t really been able to help it, but he’d reverted into some bad habits and slowly the camp began to get wary of him like it had before. This time it didn’t hurt Nico, not really. He’d been smart and knew that he couldn’t hold against the campers. He just decided that maybe he could just move on. He’d keep in touch, he’d promised Hazel as much, but maybe it was time to move onto something different than what he was seeing. He told Hades as much one day when they were sat in the palace, sifting through the damned souls and processing them.

Hades looked down at him sitting from his own large and intimidating throne. Once upon a childhood Hades had promised that he could sit with him, be his eternal helper, but Nico didn’t really think that was a good idea.

“Are you sure, Nico?”

Despite the sarcastic quips they gave each other, and the fact that occasionally they had a fight, Nico had learned that Hades was certainly not the worst of the gods. That spot was reserved exclusively for Zeus.

“I am.”

Hades looked at the ghost in front of them with a furrowed brow and Nico wondered if he was thinking about what Nico had said or judging the soul. Maybe both.

He sent it away and turned to Nico. “I have,” he gulped, “make perhaps a few ill-advised decisions when it came to how to teach you to defend yourself. But, if you say you are ready, I will give you everything you need.”

Nico hadn’t expected that, and it must have shown because his eyes had gone wide. “What about Zeus?”

Hades waved a hand nonchalantly, even though he was frowning. “He was making a point with your mother. I have made him swear that you are off limits.”

Nico knew how secure a promise from Zeus was. “Are you sure he’ll keep it?”

The souls in Hades’ gown began to swirl more furiously. “He should hope so, or else. . . Well my wrath is not without its own horrors. You will be safe, moderately.”

Nico nodded. “I wouldn’t. . . I mean, I don’t feel comfortable getting things from you.”

Hades sighed and settled more comfortably in his throne. “Yes, I know. How about a fully paid for penthouse?”

Nico made a face. “No.”

Hades sighed. “Tell me what you want. I wish to help.”

Nico fiddled with the frayed ends of the sleeve of his sweater. “Maybe, I can look for an apartment, and you can pay for it.”

Nico felt uneasy with his father being involved, but Nico had no idea what he was doing, and having an approving father who could help with finances wasn’t going to help. At least Hades was trying, and that was certainly more than he could say for Jason or Thalia or Percy or Tyson. Nico understood that by his father offering him a spot by his side he’d done what no god had dared to do for centuries; defy Zeus’s orders. Nico understood how alienated his father had made himself in an order to reach out to Nico.

Hades nodded. “I will accept this responsibility,” he waved a card in front of Nico’s face, “and take this, son.”

Nico examined the card closer. “Wait, that’s-” he looked at the dead giveaway of the lotus flower, “that’s my card from the Lotus Hotel and Casino.”

Hades nodded. “This is so that you may have sufficient funds for groceries and other things. But primarily food. Hestia tells me you have been eating better, and I would like this to continue being the case.”

Nico was sure Hades was the only person he knew who could make worrying about your health sound like an annoyed quip.

Nico nodded.

Hades waved him off. “You’ve done your work here. It’s time you join your friends again. Staying here is making you look sickly.”

And just like that Nico was transferred to his cabin in Camp Half-Blood. He walked out of the cabin, to see that it was midday. For once he enjoyed the sun on his face. He cherished the way it soaked into his skin.

“Nico!” Will called.

Nico turned to find Will Solace running up to him. Nico gave him a small smile. “Hey.”

Will smiled widely at him. “You were in the underworld again weren’t you?”

Nico nodded.

Will bounced on the heels of his feet. “So I heard you were leaving camp again, what’s that about?”

Nico let out a sighed and set on the steps. Will promptly followed him and sat right next to him.

“Just need to do something other than fight everyone else’s wars. I am going to New York City, maybe go to school again, who knows.”

Will smiled at him wide, his grin growing with every word. “That’s so great! I’m so happy for you!”

It had been a long time since anyone had been happy with a decision Nico had made. He was glad that this was a decision for himself.

“Thanks.” And the smile he gave Will was honest and unreserved.

Will nodded. “No problem! You, of all people, deserve to really get away. When will you be leaving?”

Nico sighed and looked at the cabins that had never really felt like home. “I don’t know. Maybe tomorrow?”

“So soon?” Will said in a shocked tone.

Nico nodded.

Will frowned at him and Nico could see the lines of worry in his face. “You’ll keep in touch while you’re in New York City, won’t you?”

Will’s face was so honest, and open, and completely vulnerable and Nico admired the way Will still had a child-like wonder in his eyes after all these wars and all this death and fighting. Nico wanted more people like WIll in his life, more people who could come out of all this still alive, still happy, still good.

“Of course, Solace. You’re not getting rid of me that easy.”

Will laughed and his bright blue eyes laughed with him. Nico wondered if maybe in another life he’d be able to love someone like Will. Nico was sure loving someone like Will could be easy, but not in this lifetime. Nico wanted and needed friends right now, not lovers.

“Don’t I know it.”

Nico chuckled and Will quieted down to look at him seriously. “I’m going to miss you. Will you come to camp during the summers left?”

Nico shrugged. “We only have four more left. We’ll see.”

Will opened his arms. “Hug?”

Nico rolled his eyes and leaned into the hug. Will smelled like antiseptic, orange juice, and the strawberries from the fields.

They pulled away and Will got up and pulled up Nico. “Make sure you call me on those new phones Leo made for demigods. I heard they’re completely monster-proof and my mom got one last month.”

Nico nodded. “I will.”

Will walked away and Nico sighed. Time to tell the others.

He only hoped they handled it as well as Will had.

“You’re what?!” Jason nearly screamed in shock.

“Huh.” Leo said.

“Really?” Annabeth said, curiously.

“Oh man, that’s nice.” Percy said.

“I’m happy for you, Nico.” Piper said serenely.

Nico looked at him as they were all eating dinner. “I just, need to go out there.”

Piper smiled at him. “I think it’s a brilliant idea.”

Annabeth nodded. “Yeah. You know you’ll have to fight whatever monsters come your way, don’t you?”

Nico nodded. “Yeah, I’ve thought about it. I think it’ll be worth it.”

Annabeth nodded. “It could be. You could always come to New Rome.”

Percy nodded. He was always slightly awkward since Nico had said anything, but he made an effort to try harder to pay attention to Nico, to ease over whatever leftover remnants of bitterness were left. Nico appreciated the sentiment, but he’d rather Percy just leave it alone.

Nico shook his head. “No, I’m okay with New York City.”

Jason looked at everyone. “Wait, you’re all letting him do this?”

Nico furrowed his brow. “They’re not _letting_ me do anything. I am doing this myself, and no one can tell me otherwise.”

Jason shook his head. “Think about it, Nico. This isn’t safe.”

Nico frowned. “I know the risks.”

Jason nodded. “I know.”

Nico looked hurt. “I thought you’d be happy for me.”

Jason shook his head and everyone was watching them carefully. Even Leo had abandoned the trinket in his hands for the argument they felt was coming.

“I am happy for you, Nico!”

“Then why aren’t you acting like it?” Nico said. He was so sure that maybe Jason would have been the one who would have supported him the most. He’d been wrong.

Jason sighed, running his hand through his hair. “Because maybe it’s safer to be here.”

Nico frowned. “Jason, I’m going to let you in on a little secret, we’re not safe anywhere. We’re demigods.”

Jason nodded. “I know! But they doesn’t mean we should go looking for trouble!”

“So now I’m looking for it just because I want to live my own life?”

Jason looked at him. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

“Well then what did you mean, because I’m not getting anything else from this.”

Jason sighed loudly and Nico shook his head, shaking the words out of his skull and he stepped back.

“You know what, I have to go see Reyna and Hazel. See you when I see you.”

Nico stepped into the shadows and Jason reached out with a hand. “Nico! Wait!”

But the mist was already carrying him to Camp Jupiter.

Percy looked at Jason and nodded. “Okay, so that. . . could have gone better.”

**  
  
**

Hazel and Reyna greeted him warmly, each giving him hugs until they pulled away and promptly left whatever they were doing to help Nico with his moving.

Reyna and Hazel helped him pick out furniture and interior designs and by the end of the night they had created something Nico couldn’t wait to see, to live in, and they went to sleep more than a little excited. The next morning Reyna and Nico were having breakfast while Hazel slept in with Frank.

“How did the others take the news?” Reyna asked.

Nico gulped down a bite of Italian bread. “Jason didn’t take it so well.”

Reyna nodded and went back to her fruit. “It figures.”

He frowned. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Reyna shook her head. “No reason. Just, he’s grown attached to you. It’s obvious he’d put up a fight to keep you.”

Nico hmm’d and they went back to breakfast until he got up and said it was time to leave.

Hazel was making her way over to him as Reyna took him into a hug.

“Be safe, Nico.” She whispered in a sweet voice Nico had to hold back tears to keep from being affected by.

He looked at her once they pulled away. “Is there any way I can convince you to come with me?”

She sighed and looked at the boys and girls of the legion eating and joking, and the lares that floated among them.

“I couldn’t leave them for a while.”

Nico nodded. “Maybe when you resign from the Legion.”

Reyna smiled widely at him. “You make a fair point.”

Hazel bounded over and she was smiling at Nico sadly. “I’m going to miss you. You’ll visit us often won’t you?”

Nico smiled at her. “I’ll try.”

Hazel threw her arms around him and Nico revelled in the feeling of her cinnamon curls that were soft to touch and the way her warmth radiated and swallowed Nico whole. He clung to her, almost reconsidering if he should go. But he pulled away and he knew he had to do this, that it was time to honestly do something for himself.

“Be safe. I love you. We love you.”

Nico smiled them and waved until the shadows carried him away.

Nico started his junior year of high school in what his father had claimed was an lgbt+ nurturing high school. In all honesty, it made everything easier for Nico, knowing that a majority of the student body was just like him, and that they weren’t broken. They were real, alive, happy. They weren’t afflicted with some illness that society had tried to cleanse them of. Nico felt, for the first time in his life, at home in a strange place. Nico couldn’t recall ever feeling that way.

**  
  
**

It turned out that Will Solace never let Nico go a day without calling him. Will called him to take about his school, his life, his apartment, what the area near him was like. Nico loved it. Without the pressures of being the son of a Big Three Nico flourished. He loved the feeling he got from going to classes he loved and talking walks in the small park next to a bodega on the corner. It was small, but Nico enjoyed the way life seemed muted in his small nature sanctuary. Nico told all of this to Will, and Will was encouraging and supportive. Nico never got over the way Jason had distrusted him. Since he’d left the camp he couldn’t stop playing the argument in his head. It was the last time that Jason had seen him and Nico had seen him and they had fought. Nico was tempted to go back and fix things, but he was happy here. Camp didn’t make him happy, not like the sweet bread from the bodega and the nature sanctuary and listening to the sounds of the city in the early morning as he ate before he went to school.

Nico left it alone, figured maybe next summer he could fix it.

**  
  
**

Nico never got around to that next summer. In fact, Nico skipped all four of the summers that had been left for the official campers before you either went on to college or just stopped going.

Nico had paid for Hazel and Reyna visit him for a week, on their vacation seasons, and sometimes Frank followed after and Nico loved those times. They were his immediate family, and having them near him made him feel good. Sometimes the school years got lonely but instead of going to camp Nico would have them come and travel around New York City. Will had come and stayed with him an entire summer right before his and Nico’s senior year of high school. Will had loved the apartment and they made plans to live together for college. Nico had actually welcomed the idea. He noticed that he had actually become more social when he talked to people. He was more open now. His school was nurturing, in that his father had done the best he could.  He worked in more clubs, talked to more people, he even had a few friends. He learned that he was as good at cooking as his mother (Hades’s words), that he loved History, but hated sciences, and that he enjoyed English and was good at math.

Nico blossomed into all that he could be. He learned what he was good at, what talents outside of resurrecting dead people he had. Nico felt useful and valuable and happy. Nico felt like he’d finally become as normal as he could be, and maybe he never would be, but Nico finally began to feel like he belonged in his own body and the feelings he had, that feeling towards men, it was as natural as his ability to travel through shadows. Nico missed one summer because he’d made plans with his friends from school. He’d missed another summer because he stayed in the Underworld with his father for a majority of it. That had actually been Nico’s favorite summer of all the summers he could remember. He’d been talking about his friends and Reyna, and Will, and Hazel, and his father had smiled faintly. When Nico ran out of words to say Hades prompted him to talk more and Nico told him how he remembered when he hated Nico talking so much.

Hades had only said, “I could never hate seeing you happy.”

That had been Nico’s best day.

Sometimes he’d sense monsters in the area of his apartment, or he’d see a demigod in school, and before anything bad could happen he’d take them to the camp, using Jules-Albert, and he’d fight the monsters that came. But every time he dropped the demigods off at the borders of Camp Half-Blood he wondered if he should go in, should talk with his friends, with Jason, make things up. He wondered if people would look at Nico now and still be afraid of him. Nico would sit in the car for five minutes, wondering what he should do, until he told Jules-Albert to drive away.

The people at camp had never liked him anyway.

When Will moved in after their last year of high school Nico knew he had made the right choice. Will was possibly the nicest and best roommate Nico could have ever asked for. He was considerate, he liked the same type of music Nico liked. And it turned out, they had similar routines. Nico found a best friend in Will and when Reyna came to live with them when Nico was in his sophomore year of college she got on just as well. Of course with so many demigods in one area there were more monster attacks, but Nico had back-up now. And Nico didn’t push away the help. He learned from the four years away from camp that even when he was alone he’d always be able to ask for help and receive it. Nico learned that lesson best from the way Will and Reyna would sometimes help him when nightmares from Tartarus came back to haunt him.

After a few weeks of Reyna living with them, Will and Nico decided that they would tell the camp to send campers or demigods on the run to them. Nico had been given a duplex apartment with six rooms when he turned eighteen and he figured they could make the space helpful.

Once that happened demigods trickled in and out, sometimes in pairs of groups of more than four, but they came and Nico protected them and so did Reyna and Will. Nico went to school to study classics and he helped demigods in between. It was perfect.

It only lasted for a little while. One night there was banging on Nico’s door and he ran to answer it, sword in hand. Reyna and Will had followed after him, equally wary. Nico was glad it was just the three of them and that there weren't any more demigods in the apartment with them.

He flung open the door to find a frantic Jason Grace was looking at them with a wild look in his eyes, clothes torn, and his face bleeding.

“You’ve got to help me.”

**  
  
**

Leave it to Jason Grace to be unable to leave two six year-old demigods while on his way back from a mission.

It happened that Jason and Leo had been told to go find some cursed object from Hephaestus’s junkyard that had been stolen and taken to New York City. It turned out that it had been a robotic draken. It also happened that Jason found two twin demigods on the way while he was luring the monster away from civilians.  Leo was currently in the fray, to which Reyna ran into, her gladius swinging and she pulled another knife from her thigh and began to run after the fight. The draken was two blocks away in an alleyway where Leo had managed to corner it with fire, but not before Jason had tried to fight it, try to disarm it.

Nico had listened to Jason tell the story while Will tended to his wounds and Nico turned to the demigods that sat next to Jason. They eyed him with distrust and Nico tried to find any semblance of clues to give away who their parent might be. The girl had brown hair and brown eyes but the boy had dark blue eyes.

Nico looked at them, remembered what it must have been like to be that young and not understand what was happening, why monsters wanted to kill you. Nico had found it cool, had been asking for something cool to happen to him for ages since before he met Percy Jackson, but these twins hadn’t asked for this.

“Hi.” Nico said softly.

The twins immediately turned to him. They watched him in wonder and he wondered if they were staring at the piercing on his face.

He tried again when they didn’t say anything. “Hi. What are your names?”

The girl spoke first, softly. “I’m Anna.”

The boy looked at her, took her hand. “I’m Adam.”

Nico nodded. “Nice names. Now, Adam, Anna, do you have parents?”

Jason spoke up then. “No. I already asked them. They were living in the alley we trapped the draken in.”

Nico looked down to find that Adam had a singed burn on his arm. Nico pointed to it.

“How did that happen?”

Adam tightened his grip on Anna. “The monster tried to hurt Anna.”

Nico nodded. “I have to say, that was very brave of you two. Are you hungry?”

The twins stared at each other other warily, as if wondering whether to trust Nico. He knew what might convince them.

“I have rocky road ice cream you could have after you eat.”

The twins immediately nodded. Nico chuckled. Ice cream, figures.

They sat quietly and ate the lasagna Nico had made earlier that night while Nico went into the living room to check up on Jason and Will.

Will was looking at Jason, nearly a glower if Will Solace wasn’t docile by nature and had no idea how to glower.

“How are Leo and Reyna doing? Do they need help?” Nico asked.

Jason shook his head. “Leo texted me saying they’re taking the gagged beast back tot eh junkyard.”

Nico nodded. “Hey, Will, can I talk to you for a moment?”

Will nodded, but he didn’t take his eyes off of Jason. Nico pulled him into the hallway outside of the kitchen.

“Will, knock it off.”

Will sighed and crossed his arms. “He got mad that you wanted to start a new life and never bothered to patch that up!”

Nico sighed. “Will, we’ve been over this. It was just as much my fault as it was his.”

Will huffed. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You were fourteen, you were ahead for your age, and you wanted to be happy.”

Nico just sighed. “Go check up on the kids, please. And give them ice cream.”

WIll unfolded his arms gave a tentative smile, like he was afraid of admitting defeat. “Can I make them sundaes?”

Nico chuckled. “Please don’t make them sick with your monstrous sundaes.”

Will bounded off as Nico went back into the living room.

The years had been good to Jason. He filled out much better than when he was sixteen. Jason was impossibly taller, with broader shoulders, and the glasses on his face seemed to fit his head this time around. Jason had a few more scrapes and scars and Nico wondered what it would have been like if he had been there for them, if things would have been different.

Jason looked at him. “You look good.”

Nico nodded. “I feel good. How is your arm?”

Jason shrugged. “It’ll be patched up soon enough. Just a bit of ambrosia and nectar.”

Nico nodded and let the awkward silence extend out even more.

“Listen, Nico-” Jason said.

“So how is-” Nico said.

Nico stammered and Jason did as well until Nico prompted him. “Go ahead.”

Jason sighed, and ran a hand through his hair, which seemed to be the only thing about him that seemed to stay the same after almost five years.

“Listen, Nico. . . I’m sorry.”

Nico had expected it. Now that Jason had apologized he wasn’t sure how he felt.

“I know that I should have been supportive, and I wanted to be but-”

Nico looked at him. “But what?”

Jason let out a sigh. “I was just so worried, and you had promised to stay, but you were leaving, and I was just so worried about you.”

Nico waved to the living room. “As you can see, Jason, I was able to manage perfectly fine on my own.”

Jason nodded. “I know. I know. I should have trusted your judgement.”

Nico nodded.

Jason looked at him, their eyes connected for a prolonged amount of time.

“I never forgot about you, you know. I always wondered where in the world you could be.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “You could have asked Will. Or even Hazel or Reyna.”

Jason looked at the threshold that led to the kitchen. “I tried to ask Will once. It didn’t go so well.”

Nico laughed, the kind of joyful noise he’d found he was capable of producing these last few years.

“I can’t imagine it would have. But the point stands.”

Jason wrung his hands. “I guess I was just scared that you wouldn’t want to talk to me.”

Nico sighed and leaned back into his chair. “We were good friends. I never would have done that to you. And you know it.”

Jason continued to look everywhere but at Nico. “I wasn’t sure after we had that fight and you never came back.”

Nico shrugged. “I wasn’t going to go back to place that never welcomed me.”

“I waited for you.”

“I never asked for that.”

Jason sighed and got up. “Coming here was a mistake. I’m going to get going. Festus is nearby.”

Nico looked back into the kitchen. “What about the kids?”

Jason just sighed made a break for the door. “They’re in the best hands I could imagine.”

And he was out of the door, leaving Nico very confused as to what just happened.

**  
  
**

The twins were taken by Will and Nico to Camp Half-Blood.

It was the first time Nico would be stepping onto the camp’s soil in almost five years and he was beyond nervous.

Will next to him smiled at him calmly. “Relax. You’re not the same person you were back then. Everything will be different.”

Not for the first time Nico wished that in any other lifetime he could love Will. They looked at the boy and girl who looked ready to charge excited for the borders, but Nico and WIll held their hands as they bounded into the border.

Immediately a group of guards on watch greeted them, swarming them, surrounding Nico and Will with a flurry of questions and taking the two demigods to be taken care of. Will had visited regularly and this was the early summer before summer ended and Will went back to camp, but a majority of them were already here. Nico noticed the Stoll Brothers still causing mischievously by the lake and he noticed Kayla, much older, and he noticed a lot of familiar faces and a lot of new ones. As soon as they stepped into the camp a bushel of wheat appeared over their heads and the twins were taken to the Demeter cabin, not before hugging Nico and thanking Will for the rocky road and ambrosia sundaes.

The guards ran to tell Chiron that Nico was back and when Nico looked around he found that Jason and Leo were arguing by the stables, Piper was smiling at him from her position where she leaned against the railing of the cabin. Percy and Annabeth came running up to him as soon as they spotted the commotion.

“Nico!” Percy said happily. Once upon a time that was all Nico wanted, but now, Nico was just glad for the warm greeting from a friend. It wasn’t until Annabeth gave him a high five and friendly hello that he realized how much he’d missed them.

“Percy, Annabeth, aren’t you guys staying in New Rome?”

Annabeth grinned. “I just graduated for my architecture degree.”

Percy smiled just as wide. “I went into Marine Biology. We came to kick off the summers like we always do.”

Nico smiled. “I’m so happy for you guys.” And Nico meant those words. Five years, a lot of finding friends who accepted him, and family that loved him, and talents that drove him and he meant what he said to them. If younger Nico could see him Nico was sure he’d faint from the surrealness of it all.

Percy grinned. “What about you, man? Five years is a long time to be away, but we figured you needed the space.”

Nico nodded. “I’m going to be a Classics major. Maybe teach or come back to camp.”

Percy clapped him on the back. “That’s great! Jason’s actually a Classics major too!”

Nico nodded.

Annabeth grinned at him and pulled Percy away. “Well, Nico, it was so great seeing you. We’ll catch up at dinner.”

And before he could respond he was hit with a flurry of people greeting him and Nico found that a lot of the old campers had missed him and he was glad to back. He never let his eyes drift to where Jason and Leo were arguing and every few minutes Leo would point at Nico and Jason would stare at him and then turn around as if he could will Nico into nonexistence.

Nico was sitting with Piper, Reyna, Percy, and Annabeth at dinner when Leo plopped down next to Piper.Will had left Nico and Reyna to go catch up with his siblings.

“I swear, Beauty Queen, one day your ex-boyfriend is going to make me light this entire camp on fire just so I can stay sane while I deal with his insanity.”

Piper just sighed. “What did he do this time?”

Leo was about to launch into a tangent until he noticed Nico and immediately quieted.

“Maybe later.”

Piper nodded. “It’s probably for the best.”

Reyna sat next to Nico and they ate quietly until Percy spoke up.

“So, Nico, how’s dating been going?”

Annabeth elbowed him harshly, which made Percy squeak in pain but Nico shook his head. He noticed that everyone was staring at him, except Reyna. She was busy glaring at Percy. It wasn’t a full glare, was it possible for people to glare softly at others? Because it seemed like that was what she was doing.

“It’s fine, honestly. And no, no real dating. I figured that there were more important things than dating.”

Reyna smirked with pride as they all nodded, a bit confused.

“Well,” Piper said with a supportive tone, “I think that’s great. Not to mention you look so much happier.”

Percy seemed to still at that. Annabeth looked at him, taking his hand, and Nico just watched him steel himself for a moment.

“Yeah, happier.” He said softly.

Nico turned to Piper. “What about you?”

Piper sighed, mocking wistfully. She was smiling. “If only there was a human being as amazing as I was.”

Nico let out a small laugh at that. They all turned to him, still shocked that Nico di Angelo was capable of making that noise. Nico felt kind of sad that once upon time everyone had expected him to be a glowering and grimacing grumpy kid, but Nico realized that living that way, living with ghosts that weighed you down, it was exhausting. Nico stopped wasting energy on carrying around things from the past. He learned that and afterwards he had much more energy to smile and laugh. Nico liked that feeling.

Nico smiled at him. “Same here.”

She fist bumped him from across the table.

Leo seemed to still be watching him, as if examining him, but he didn’t say a word. Nico pretended that it wasn’t happening.

When dinner was done Nico was pulled aside by Percy on his way back to his cabin.

Nico looked at him in shock. “Uhm. . . Hi.”

Percy ran a hand through his hair. “Listen, Nico-”

_Oh great, here we go again._

Nico sighed. “Percy, I know.”

Percy looked at him sad and frantic eyes. “No, I don’t think you do. Nico, I’m so sorry.”

Nico nodded. “I know you are, Percy.”

Percy wrung his hands and kicked the dirt in a frustrated look. “Nico, your sister promised that I would protect you, and I didn’t. I just-”

Nico sighed and put a hand on Percy’s shoulder. It was strange, because over the years, with all the walking and eating better, Nico stood several inches taller than Percy.

“Percy, you tried. Things. . . didn’t go according to plan, and we have to accept that.”

Percy made a frustrated noise. “How can you be so accepting now? I essentially ruined your life by being the least accepting person ever.”

Nico nodded. “You didn’t do anything. Sure you didn’t really help by adding fuel to the fire, but everything that happened, the Fates wanted it to be like that. Beside, I’m happy now.”

Percy gave him another sad look. “You became happy by leaving. You were never going to be happy here, were you?”

Nico shook his head. “No. I couldn’t cope, and I always felt like I was being watched. Out in the real world, no one even bothered to look twice. It was the best I’d felt in such a long time.”

Percy nodded, seeming to push back all his other emotions to look at Nico with fierce determination. A determination to be better than he had been.

“I’m happy for you, Nico. I’m glad you were able to be happy.”

Nico smiled at him. “So am I. Friends?”

He held out that hand that was no longer that sickly pale, but a deep tanned olive. He even saw a few freckles on his hand.

Percy chuckled and took it, shaking fiercely. “Friends.”

Nico went to bed that night and he had never slept better.

Nico stayed at camp for the morning, telling everyone that he had to go get his clothes if he was going to stay for a week. Not to mention Nico would have to handle his work from college. He had shadow travelled, something he hadn’t done in a long time, and as he was packing in his apartment, he realized that he’d begun to combine the parts of his life together. Sure he’d never be able to fully combine them, the life of a demigod was all about balance. But he learned he could live in both worlds, and that now, both worlds wanted him in them. He smiled as he shadow travelled back into his cabin.

There was someone in his cabin.

“Stupid! Idiot!”

Nico was about to ask who it was, the curtains were drawn and the room was still fairly dark, but he just stood quietly.

“He’s left for good and you were too busy being an idiot to say goodbye.”

Nico knew that voice.

“Jason?”

Just as Jason swirled around, winds swirled around the room and broke the darkness by flinging the curtains open. The sudden light hurt his eyes, but Nico adjusted quickly.

Jason was looking at him in shock. “You came back.”

Nico nodded and held up his bag. “I had to go get clothes if I was going to stay for the week.”

“A week.” Jason said faintly, his eyes becoming unfocused.

Nico watched him. “What did you need?”

Jason stammered. “I-oh. . . Uh, I-”

And he zipped out of the room, leaving Nico very confused, until he began to unpack and ran off to find Will.

Nico spent his first day back at Camp Half-Blood training the younger kids, who watched him in wonder. He was assigned to spar with Clarisse and he bested her four out five. After beating her for the fourth time she smirked as he helped lift her up.

“You bulked up, di Angelo. Hedge was right, you can take a punch.”

Nico smirked. “I’d take you on any day, Clarisse.”

She clapped him on the back and unlike before when she’d done it to him once, it didn’t hurt.

“I can respect that.”

And the children attacked him with question, lots of them about the Nico di Angelo from a long time ago, about him being the King of Ghosts, Nico loved their vibrancy and when two of them asked to be carried by the Great Nico di Angelo he just laughed and hefted them up as the others followed him and he had children clinging to him as they made their way to the dining hall. He put down the children on his shoulders and they all scampered off. Nico smiled after them and went to sit with his friends.

Will had saved him a seat beside Reyna, across from Percy and Annabeth.

Nico looked around. “Where are Leo and Piper?”

Percy sighed. “Dealing with Jason’s repressed homosexual tendencies.”

Annabeth elbowed him. She glared at him.

He coughed. “I mean. . . His, uhm, some nightmares.”

Will giggled into his food and Nico and Reyna just stared at each other.

Annabeth frowned and turned to them. “Please excuse the fact that Percy cannot keep his mouth shut. That was supposed to be,” she turned to give him another glare, “private.”

Percy squeaked but Nico and Reyna nodded.

“We understand.” Reyna said.

Just as she said that Jason, Piper, and Leo appeared by the table.

Piper smiled sweetly at Reyna. “Say, Reyna, do you mind sitting by me?”

Jason made a noise in the back of his throat and everyone turned to look at him, but Reyna kept her eyes on Piper and moved to sit next to her. Leaving a spot next to Nico open and Leo shoved past Jason and Jason tripped so that he landed in the spot and nico looked at Leo to find him smirking.

Percy and Annabeth seemed to be exchanging looks of understanding. Nico looked at Will who just shrugged.

“You have weird friends.” He said simply.

Nico sighed and went back to his food.

Jason sat beside him and tried to talk with him, but with everyone’s eyes on them Nico felt a bit off. He said curt answers and only after dinner did he get to talk to Jason.

“Nico, I’m sorry we’ve been fighting.”

Nico shrugged. He wasn’t sure what to say. Those feelings from so long ago didn’t seem as strong now, but it was replaced with something else, something old that Nico recognized, but didn’t want to acknowledge.

“It’s okay.” It wasn’t.

“No, it isn’t. I. . . I missed you. I don’t want to waste the time you’re here, wasting it on fighting with you.”

Nico nodded. “I want that too.”

Jason smiled brightly at him and that thing in Nico’s chest cried to force itself out.

“That’s good. Ready for the campfire sing-along?”

Nico chuckled. “You better be careful, I’ve had a lot of time to practicing.”

Jason walked off, laughing, and Nico followed, feeling lighter.

**  
  
**

The week went by fast, with Nico quickly becoming attached to Jason all over again. They got into a comfortable routine of hanging out together.

It was the night before he was due to leave, with Reyna and Will both sleeping in his cabin when they mentioned it.

“So it was nice to be close to Jason again, wasn’t it?” Will said, in a tone that Nico knew.

“Will, please stop before you get any ideas.”

Reyna chuckled. “I’m afraid he already has the ideas. And I may have fostered them a bit.”

Nico sighed. “You’re like overprotective mothers.”

Will laughed. “Guilty.”

Reyna seemed to be more serious. “Do you like him?”

Nico nodded into the darkness. “Of course, he’s my friend.”

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

Nico sighed, trying to avoid the pounding in his chest. “We’ve been over this.”

Will gave a frustrated sighed. “Yes, yes, we know, but don’t you think that ‘No more heroes.’ bit would be good to ignore if Jason actually liked you.”

Nico shook his head. “I can’t believe you’ve resorted to gossiping at a sleepover like we aren’t adults in college.”

Will snorted. “Please, like you didn’t do this with Reyna while I was out of town three weeks ago.”

Reyna let out a laugh, it sounding elegant. “Guilty.”

Nico just sighed again. “Good night, both of you.”

“He’s just hiding from his feelings.” Will sighed.

“What would Sigmund Freud say?” Reyna said, sounding like she was mockingly disappointed. Thankfully they didn’t say anything after that.

He woke up and when he went to breakfast he found that Reyna and Will had decided to go back early. It was only him left. Will left a note on his door saying that they already took a majority of his things, and that there wasn’t any rush to go home. Will’s suggestive winky face did not help to convince Nico that they weren’t trying to meddle in his love life.

Nico walked into the dining room to find that only Jason was sitting at his usual table.

“Where are the others?” Nico asked.

Jason shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Nico sat down after giving his offerings.

“So, today’s the big day.” Jason said.

Nico nodded.

Jason looked down at the eggs on his plate. “And then back to New York City.”

Nico took a bite of his toast, watching Jason nervously ramble.

“You’ll come back, won’t you?” Jason asked.

Nico considered it before he swallowed and looked at Jason. “I might.”

Jason nodded. “Right.”

He got up from his chair and bolted. “I have to go.”

Nico watched him walk quickly to the cabins. Nico sighed and followed after him.

“Jason!” He called.

Jason bounded across the commons, people watching them now, but he didn't stop when Nico called out to him.

He ran faster and gripped Jason’s arm as they stood beside the hearth.

“What’s your problem? This entire week you’ve been off.”

Jason shook his head, his eyes looked stormy. “Let it go. Let _me_  go.”

Nico shook his head. “No. We’re talking about this.”

Jason looked around at the people who had stopped to look at them.

“Now? Right here? You don’t want that.”

Nico nodded. “I don’t care. I want to know why it seems like everyone seems to know something I don’t.”

Jason huffed and looked at him petulantly. “You left.”

Nico had been expecting that. “I know. You know I had to.”

Jason huffed. “You didn’t have to. You have stayed.”

Nico let go of him and frowned. “And what? Deal with whispers and live in the shadows of your glory?”

Jason glared at him. “You never would have lived in my shadow.”

Nico scoffed. “No, but people would have put me there because it was easier to deal with me like that.”

Jason frowned now. “You could have gotten better here.”

Nico looked at him sadly. “Don’t joke.”

“I’m not joking.”

Nico sighed. “That wouldn’t have worked. And we both know it.”

Jason shook his head. “I could have helped you.”

Nico looked around at the camp, those cabins that Nico had once seen in wonder and then scorn, and now he looked at them as if they were home, but that hadn’t been camp’s doing. “One person couldn’t have changed anything, Jason.”

Jason looked hurt when Nico turned to him. “Was I not good enough for you?”

Nico frowned and took a step back. “Don’t twist my words. You know I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I don’t know anything about you!” Jason shouted.

The people watching them seemed to go closer, as if to help Nico, but he prayed they didn’t. Jason continued.

“That's just it! I don’t know a thing about you because you never let me! You were always pushing me away!”

Nico grimaced. “That goes both ways, Jason. Don’t put the blame all on me. You were just as responsible for this estrangement.”

Jason frowned. “It’s not safe for demigods to-”

“So?” Nico bit back. “I left, and I turned out to be perfectly fine. I can hardly imagine that the demigod who fought Gaia was afraid of a few monsters.”

Jason frowned. “I had the shrines to build. I was busy here. Just because you could leave and it didn’t matter-”

Nico scoffed angrily. His blood had begun to boil. “Oh please, Jason, you didn’t have to stay here after the shrines were built! I heard from Will that you finished them within the second year.”

Jason glared at him. “That’s not the point!”

Nico poked him in the chest angrily. “That’s exactly the point! You just sat here and let yourself be put into expectations you hated. I was the exact same, and I left.”

“And you never came back.” Jason said softly, but his angry stare seemed to give off a different tone.

Nico threw up his hands. “Would you stop saying that?! Of course I didn’t come back. It wasn’t my job to dedicate all my summers to a camp that hated me!”

“Camp Half-Blood accepted you-” Jason began.

“For a short period of time until everyone got tired of me. Don’t pretend you know anything about that, perfect son of Jupiter.” Nico finished.

Jason looked angry, but sad as well and it directly mirrored how Nico felt having this fight in front of everyone who could see them.

“I never said I was perfect. I never asked for that.”

Nico glared at him. “You certainly didn’t help it by staying where you were. You had so many options and so many opportunities to leave, so why didn’t you?”

Jason's anger seemed to dwindle with the question. He just shook his head as if he was exhausted, defeated. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me!” Nico pushed, angrily. He was tired of all the cryptic meanings and the undertones never explained. He was tired of fighting like he was fourteen again.

“I was waiting for you to come back!” Jason shot back.

Nico hadn’t expected that. He was stunned into silence.

Jason ran both of his hands through his hair and looked around, panicked, as if he wanted to run away, but he spoke fast and sadly. “I couldn’t leave camp because I was always expecting you to show up. And I couldn’t miss a chance to see you again.”

Nico felt himself shake his head, but he felt like he was having an out of body experience. “I never asked you to do that.”

“It wasn’t really your choice.” Jason said, with a snort that held a resentment Nico didn’t understand.

“Then why do you keep acting like it’s my fault?” Nico asked, beyond confused with what was happening now.

Jason sighed. “I guess I wanted someone to blame for never going after you.”

“I was just someone to blame.” Nico said faintly.

“No, you were much more than that. Even back then I knew that you were so much more than that.” Jason looked at him as he said. His bright blue eyes honest and wide, and so scared. Nico knew that face. Nico had seen that face in the mirror for such a long time.

“You’re in love with me.” Nico said, shocked, stunned and standing just looking back at Jason.

Jason nodded silently.

Nico didn’t say anything. Jason took that as a rejection and before Nico could say anything else Jason flew away, taking himself away from the camp grounds and over the treetops.

Leo appeared next to Nico, who was still looking after where Jason had been, processing all the things they’d said.

“Well, see, we weren’t expecting that.”

Neither was Nico.

**  
  
**

Nico packed his bag and after dinner, in which he saw no sight of Jason, he decided he could wait another hour before he left.

It was ten o’clock when he went knocking on Jason’ cabin door.

“Go away, Leo!” Jason shouted.

Nico turned the door, took a deep breath to calm his fast paced heart, and poked his head in.

“It’s me.”

Jason shot up from his head, standing at attention right beside his bed.

“Nico.”

Nico walked in and shut the door. “We need to talk. Actually talk, like we’re adults, not kids anymore.”

Jason nodded and sat back down on his bed and Nico moved to sit beside him.

For a while neither of them said anything, until Nico finally spoke up. “How long have you loved me?”

Jason sighed and picked at the frayed edges of his worn blanket. “The moment you left I realized I’d loved you.”

Nico nodded. “I’m sorry I never came back.”

Jason shook his head. “I shouldn’t have expected you to come back to something that didn’t make you happy.”

“You made me happy.”

They sat in silence for another beat before Nico began again.

“I told myself no more heroes, when I left here. After Percy, I wanted to be safe, wanted to be happy, and having a hero complex, that wasn’t helping.”

Jason nodded.

Nico took his hand and he hoped Jason didn’t notice the way his pulse raced. He looked directly at Jason even in the darkness of the cabin. “I want to do this right, Jason. No Nico di Angelo the Ghost King, or Jason the Hero of Olympus. Just us. In the real world, I want us to just be us.”

Jason nodded quickly. “Anything. I just don’t want you to leave without a goodbye again.”

Nico smiled at him and shook his head. “No. No more leaving without goodbyes.”

Jason kissed him and even if the harpies did come and chased him back to his own cabin, it still seemed to be the best night of his life.

And in the morning when he left and he took Jason with him he finally felt like he was going home.

Nico looked at Jason, who gripped his bag at side.

“Ready?”

Jason smiled at him and took his hand tightly.

“Ready.”

They plunged into darkness, and Nico was looking forward to the brightness that came after.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this one! Remember that I am always looking for more submissions and more prompts so you are always welcome to submit something!


	13. The Emperor's New Clothes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jason is a shitty well-to-do spy and Nico is the badass who just can't seem to resist blondes. This is a song fic featuring the new Panic! At The Disco song, The Emperor's New Clothes! Enjoy!

_**Prompt:** By the way have you thought of a rival spy agency au?_

 

* * *

**  
  
**

_**Dynasty decapitated** _

_**You just might see a ghost tonight** _

_**And if you don't know now you know** _

__

Nico di Angelo has a lot of names. Most he’s only used in terms of his missions. Nico di Angelo was the sneakiest, cleverest, and most sought after man in all of eastern Europe. He had gone under an agency that hired assassins and an assassin Nico was. A damn good one at that. Nico knew when to move out on his prey, when to hold back, and he knew when to go for the silent kill. Nico learned from an early age, from a terrible father, that the only things you could depend on were family, and a good shot. Nico lost his family more than a decade ago, but that good shot remained. With only a gun, and more memories than he was certainly capable of holding together, he enlisted to shoot people for a living. The pay was good, and more often than not he killed rich politicians who didn’t do good for their countries or their families. Nico was good at it, it was something he’d been doing all his life. And when it was over he’d just retreat back to that house in the countryside his mother and sister had left him alone in. He never got lonely though, there was no use in that. He knew what he had expected life to be like as an agent who work not so inside the confines of the law. He used to be sad that he no longer had his mother and sister, and even his piece of shit father, but he had become more used to it by staying out later, staying out in other places that weren’t home. And when he had off time Nico spent more time in a few strangers’ beds than in his own home. It was easier that way.

Jason Grace was a bit different. Jason Grace was from the east side of Manhattan, with a vast wealth that he tried to hide from very many people. Jason Grace was also an agent for the CIA. Jason didn’t have a tragic backstory, or a sad family parting, Jason’s parents were both estranged from him even before he’d made this decision and Thalia had taken care of him so well that when he joined it wasn’t for any purpose other than he believed in upholding justice and he believed in keeping the world safer. He like kind of like Batman if Batman was blonde and healthy and well adjusted, and really he was actually nothing like Batman, thank you, Leo. Jason had recently been hired for one special job. Nico di Angelo and Jason Grace had nothing in common. Jason had a family full of friends, Nico lived alone, travelled alone. Jason Grace enjoyed wealth and enjoyed fine things occasionally, if he was being honest, Nico hated fancy things, lived frugally. The only thing that brought them together: Jason Grace had recently been hired by the CIA to kill Nico di Angelo.

Jason was flown into Venice where it had been reported that Nico di Angelo would be staying. He was sitting on a plane with Piper while he looked over the files she had given him.

“So what do we know about him?”

Piper began to rattle off facts. “He’s twenty-six, five foot nine, lives in a house his mother used to own, and he’s gay.”

Jason looked up at her. “You think that’ll be useful information?”

Piper shrugged. “Maybe. I am trained to give you all the information that will benefit you.”

Jason nodded and looked down at the file. He furrowed his brow.

“There’s no photo.”

Piper bit her lip. “That’s the problem. No one’s ever actually taken a photo of Nico di Angelo.”

“So I’m hunting a ghost?”

Piper sighed and nodded. “We’ve sent men to take photos, to report back, and none of them returned. He’s like smoke, and he moves as fast as a shadow.”

Jason smirked and looked down at the papers. “Good. I like a challenge.”

The first thing Jason did when he got to Italy, was get smashed at a gay bar.

**_I'm taking back the crown_ **

**_I'm all dressed up and naked_ **

**_I see what's mine and take it_ **

**_(Finders keepers, losers weepers)_ **

He’d make the excuse later on that it was to scope out the scene in Venice, but after the stressful days of work, Jason believed that he’d deserved it. He was wasted after five shots a man with moderately short black hair bought him. Jason should have been suspicious, paranoid, everyone was a possible enemy now that he knew that no one knew what Nico di Angelo looked like, but the man smiled so warmly. He was shorter, but he was lean and lithe in a way Jason had never seen before, and his brown eyes were so _deep._ Jason wondered if that joke about European men being more attractive could be proven with one instance alone. Jason should have focused. He should have been alert and aware of his enemies and the fact that Nico had a M9 gun strapped to his thigh. But Jason just smiled at the man, listened to the loud and pounding European dance music, and took another shot.

Nico knew who he was even before he had gone up to him. It was Nico’s job to know all of his possible enemies. But Nico liked having fun, and he knew that no one knew what he looked like, so he walked up, a sway in his hips like he did when he went in for the kill. Nico ordered him shots and smiled and even took the same in kind. But Jason Grace must be a lightweight because Nico only felt buzzed when Jason began to wobble in his seat a bit. They left the pumping bass of the club behind for a quiet hotel room.

Jason ended up going home with him, or, what he thought was home. There was a bed, and Jason liked the bed. Especially when the dark haired man was kissing him, pulling them closer together. Completely forgotten was his mission while this European stranger sent Jason to places he never knew and when Jason passed out after he climaxed for the third time he felt boneless, nearly floating from ecstasy. When he woke up the next morning the man was nowhere to be found, but there was a small note on the bed beside him. Jason crumpled it up, threw it away, and walked out what seemed to be a hotel room in the middle of downtown Venice.

Nico watched from the surveillance cameras as Jason wondered off and smiled to himself. This game would be fun.

_**Sycophants on velvet sofas** _

_**Lavish mansions, vintage wine** _

_**I am so much more than Royal** _

_**Snatch your chain and mace your eyes** _

__

Jason figured that if he couldn’t locate his target in the streets the next best thing would be to go to his home in the countryside just outside of Venice, past the bridge that connected it to the rest of Italy. He would have loved bringing his friends to Venice. It was the first time he’d seen the city, but he loved the canals and the vibrant colors of the buildings. Annabeth would have loved it. But now, in this instant he was driving away from it, towards the villa of Nico di Angelo.

Nico saw him coming. Nico knew that this residence wasn’t placed under private security. Nico knew that he would have come snooping through his life one way or another. What this man wanted, he didn’t know, but he knew enough that he knew Jason Grace worked for the CIA and more than a few times they had sent men after Nico to either get pictures, or bring him into custody for the United States. Americans were arrogant enough to think Nico di Angelo would let them take him down with one man alone. One man had even been convinced to work side by side with Nico when he had come and tried to bring Nico to justice in the States.

Nico wasn’t sure what he had done this time but he dressed in his sharp suit, as he always did, and got lunch ready for his visitor.

Jason was paranoid that the villa’s only security was an old man who opened the gate to the villa. Jason Grace drew up and was expecting a fight when the man just opened the door with a small smile and told him to go inside. He drove down the long drive that led to the expansive mansion in the middle of a field of lavender and grapes. No workers were seen on the premises but Jason figured that was how Nico di Angelo paid to keep this huge neolithic dream house. Jason wondered if Annabeth would love this house too.

He got out of the car, closed the door, and kept his gun tight in hand. There weren’t guards or security, and even when Jason went to open the door he found that it was unlocked. He walked in and looked around, found no one in the rooms, but he wasn’t foolish enough to call out. He stopped dead in his tracks when he moved into the living room.

Well shit. “Well shit.”

Nico smiled at him. “Nice to see you again, Mr. Grace.”

Jason wanted to kick himself. Instead he hit his forehead with the butt of his gun. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

“As you said many times on that night three weeks ago, Mr. Grace.”

Jason frowned at him. “How did you find out my name, di Angelo?”

Nico raised an eyebrow and there was the ghost of a smile on his face. “You think a well sought after assassin wouldn’t be informed the moment a well-to-do CIA agent come into the country?”

Jason cursed. “You knew it was me the moment I entered that club, didn’t you?”

Nico shrugged. “More or less. If it makes you feel better I wasn’t too sure to begin with.”

“What made you sure?”

Nico stared at him, scrutiny in his gaze and far too comfortable with his index finger on the trigger.

“It was the eyes. The other spies spoke of them. They’re very blue.”

“Do you always flatter your prey before you kill them?”

Nico looked at him with a glint in his eyes.

“No. I consume them.”

Jason felt himself involuntarily shiver.

Nico sat down in a velvet loveseat sofa. “You could join me, you know. I heard about your marks, nearly perfect. Of course I am a perfect shot. We’d make a great team.”

Jason frowned and pointed his gun. “I could shoot you.”

Nico chuckled sarcastically. “Oh, but you won’t, Jason.”

Jason didn’t like the way his name fell from Nico di Angelo’s mouth, like it was a dirty secret. It made Jason feel warm. It made him feel cold. It made him confused about who was the bad guy here.

“How do you know that?”

Nico shrugged and waved around his gun. “Because I’m of better use to you alive, and,” Nico got up slowly and made his way over to Jason until they were a breath away and Nico leaned into his ear, “because you know how good I am at shooting a loaded gun.”

Jason took a step back and pointed the gun directly at Nico’s chest, who just smiled. “Do it. Shoot me.”

“I could.” Even as Jason said it he knew the words were a lie on his tongue.

Nico sat back in his chair and sighed. “Of course. Or you could join me. I’ve had raving reviews.”

Jason frowned at him. “About your shooting?”

Nico smirked. “In a sense.”

**_If it feels good, tastes good_ **

**_It must be mine_ **

**_Heroes always get remembered_ **

**_But you know legends never die_ **

__

Jason fell for it again. Nico sweet talked his way out of it and they ended up falling in a down mattress as Nico ran his hands all over Jason’s body. Nico nipped at his neck and Jason writhed. He should have remained cool, collected. He should have been better at this. But Nico smelled like cinnamon and the air from the Italian countryside and Jason just wanted to breathe in that heady scent along with his arousal.

Nico liked Jason Grace. He liked the well toned torso and the muscles that were so defined Nico wanted to tie him up and see if he could escape. Nico loved the feeling of Jason and Nico knew when they fell into bed that he’d make Jason his.

“You’ll be mine soon.” He said softly.

Jason bit his lip and thrust their hips together harshly.

“Never.”

Nico just sighed and got up from the bed. He stood across the room from Jason and looked at Jason who was standing beside the bed with a gun in his hand.

"Do you think I became an assassin because I don't get the things I want, Jason Grace?"

Jason shrugged. "I think you just take whatever you want and no one's ever told you no."

Nico scoffed. "I got what I wanted because I am powerful, even from a young age. I am a legend, Jason Grace."

Jason shook his head. "You'll be forgotten like the rest of them."

"Not me, I am a hero, Jason."

Jason frowned. "You think that, what, killing corrupt politicians makes you a hero?"

“You really must stop trying to resist fighting for my cause, Jason Grace.” Nico said in a disappointed tone.

Jason knew what he was resisting. He figured he was doing a good job considering how much he realized he wanted it.

“What cause?” Jason asked.

Nico just laughed. He ducked out of the window of the balcony and when Jason ran after him he noticed that Nico was already riding away on a prepared bright red car. Jason sighed and slammed his fist with the terracotta colored walls of the bedroom. He was glad when he made a dent.

**_I'm taking back the crown_ **

**_I'm all dressed up and naked_ **

**_I see what's mine and take it_ **

**_(Finders keepers, losers weepers)_ **

Nico spent the next week in and out of strangers’ beds, relieving himself of all the tension with Grace and when he wasn done he went home. As soon as he opened the door he had a knife wielded to his throat. He smiled.

“Oh, Reyna, I’ve missed you.”

Reyna just sighed and let him go while she closed the door behind him. “We have a bit of a problem.”

“And what is that?”

Reyna’s curly hair braided over her shoulder seemed to sway as she looked at him.

“I’ve caught Jason Grace.”

“Oh, my little naive CIA agent. What’s the problem?”

Reyna sighed. “He’s brought in help.

Nico sighed and went to his living room where a dark haired girl wearing a leather jacket was gagged and bound across from Jason. Nico tsked.

“You really are supposed to be better at this, Jason Grace.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember that submissions are always welcome, leave them in the comments! And that I would still love a co-author! Until next time. c:


	14. Loving Me With the Lights On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So Q asked for us to write a continuation of the first chapter of this great work! So here it is! I am so sorry it isn't longer, but I feel like this really closed it off and really handled it well.   
> Enjoy! - The Inebriated Literary Virtuoso

_**Prompt:** A continuation of the very first chapter_

__

* * *

**  
  
**

For people who had spent more time having sex than they did talking, Jason and Nico got along surprisingly well. Jason listened when Nico talked about the things he’d love, and when Nico’s tangent, which could last pretty long, ended he’d look at Jason and ask him question and sometimes Jason would mess up. Because Nico’s eyes were still bright and his smile was soft, and Jason wondered how anyone could ever want more than Nico di Angelo.

It goes like this: Jason falls in love with Nico the very first day they finally see each other in rooms that aren’t dimly lit, and corridors where god only knows how many people have done the exact same things they have. But after being around him for more than a week, Jason realized that sometimes Nico had bags under his eyes, and scars on his body that won’t heal. Jason would like to pretend they don’t exist, but they do. Because the truth of the matter is that Nico would have left Jason alone, would have given himself enough distance that it felt like Nico might as well live at the North Pole, because he didn’t think he deserved it. Nico had scars Jason couldn’t understand and won’t try to, because while Jason’s mother was an alcoholic and his father never actually supported them a day in their lives, Jason didn’t have scars, didn’t have esteem issues.

Jason wanted to help, honestly, he did. He wanted to know when Nico was going to a dark place, so that Jason could help him get out, to drag him back into the light where they both belonged. Nico belonged in light, bathed in it on late mornings and when they took walks and the sun caught his hair so he looked like an angel. Jason always loved the murals in church on the morning, because they caught the light and glimmered. And just like the canvases that Nico dragged around campus, he was a work of art.

Jason never said these things, of course. No one really wants to hear someone they love talk about them for ages in the most cliched and romantic sense anyone could think of. So instead, Jason showed him through sex.

It was two months the first time they had sex again. Jason was aware of the implications this time, how much there was too lose, but he wasn’t scared. When it finally happened and they were pressed against each other in the sheets, they laughed. Jason let out a laugh and Nico looked at him.

“Is it that bad?”

Jason smiled and gave a small laugh again.

“No, it’s perfect. You’re perfect.”

And then Nico laughed, and even if he laughed because Jason called him perfect, the tension was gone, and Jason was glad for it. They laughed and smiled the whole way through and then eventually it turned to moaning and the rest is history.

It sort of began like this: Jason Grace does ///not/// want to tell their friends about this.

It’s not that Jason is ashamed, far from it! He wants to shout it from the rooftops that he belongs to Nico di Angelo and okay maybe loving an amazing transfer Italian student is making Jason lovestruck but at this point in his life he feels like he’s allowed to be.

No, it’s because Nico is still jumpy.

It began with the argument.

“I just don’t see why I have to meet your sister.”

Jason sat across from Nico on the bed, and sighed.

“She’s important to me, and you are too. I want us to have a good time with her. She’s also been dying to meet you.”

Nico sighed and crossed his arms. “I just think it’s too early.”

Too early being five months, two weeks, and three days. Jason counted specifically because at the end of this he would realize this was their biggest fight up to that point.

“It’s been almost half a year, Nico.”

Nico looked at him with hurt in his eyes. “You think I don’t know that.”

Jason felt instantly guilty. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to push you.”

Nico sighed. “I just don’t understand why we have to do that, it’s not like she’s never met me.”

Jason frowned and looked down at the cotton sheets to hide it. “This is different, and we both know it.”

Nico huffed. “I’m sure we could find a way to be introduced at a party or something-”

“Are you ashamed to be with me?”

They both hadn’t expected the words, but after almost half a year and no one seeing them together in public Jason had to worry. It wasn’t a rational thought, thinking that your partner didn’t want to be seen with you. It even bordered on abusive, but Jason knew Nico wasn’t forcing him to stay away in the light of day because he was ashamed of him, Nico had demons that he hadn’t come to terms yet, and Jason had to wait. But he was so tired of waiting.

“What?” Nico said, it was nearly a whisper.

Jason looked up and there was hurt in his eyes.

“Are you ashamed to be seen with me, Nico? Because if that’s what this is, I can make things really easy and just leave?”

“Leave.” Nico said faintly, as if he’d gone into shock.

Jason sighed. “I am trying really to understand why you don’t want to make this as real as it could be. I am trying to understand why we can’t hold hands and we can only have sex when no one else knows you’re here and I trying really hard to _understand_ , but I can’t. And I need you to explain it to me.”

Nico shook his head. “You wouldn’t understand.”

Jason pushed. “Then make me! Make me understand. I love you, Nico, but I can’t stay like this if all we’re ever going to be doing is kissing in broom closets and holding hands under the table.”

Nico looked at him. “You can’t stay?”

Jason knew he’d worded it wrong the moment Nico looked to have fiery rage and hurt in his eyes and tears bubbled over.

“You can’t stay? Well no one asked you to! So don’t pretend you’re doing me any favors, and leave if that’s what you want!”

Jason sighed. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it. Don’t twist my words around because you’re angry.”

Nico nearly growled. “No! I don’t know what you meant. I don’t care either! I am trying! I am trying so hard!”

He’d begun to cry and maybe the other roommates in Nico’s apartment were here now and they could hear them arguing, or they were gone, but it didn’t matter. Jason leaned forward and kissed his forehead, pulling him into his lap so they sat together on the bed comfortable. Nico sniffed.

“What are you doing?” Nico asked.

Jason sighed and hugged him closer. “Giving you a hug.”

“But we’re having a fight.”

Jason nodded. “I know. And later we’ll talk about it. We’ll talk about all of it, how you need to be more open with me and your feelings and your commitment to this relationship. And we’ll talk about me going too fast, and how I need to be more understanding instead of pushing you. We’ll talk through it. It’s what couples do, the fighting.”

“So we’re not going to break-up?”

Jason sighed and ran a hand through the soft hair that Jason loved waking up next to on mornings when they fell asleep just for the sake of sleeping in proximity to each other. And Jason would wake up and that damn filtered sunlight would light Jason’s world on fire and it would light Nico’s entire body and Jason thought that maybe if he was going to hell for loving a man, Nico was the closest he’d ever get to heaven.

“If you knew how I felt about you, you wouldn’t even need to ask that.”

Nico wiped his nose and nodded. “You love me.”

Jason sighed. “During an argument was not the most ideal of places. I was saving it.”

Nico leaned into Jason’s body and the arms wrapped tightly around him and he seemed to be kissing Jason’s collarbone.

“I love you, too.”

Jason smiled. “I know.”

So they talked about it. Nico explained the deepseated abandonment issues he has, and the other things that he mentioned in passing but would never fully explain to Jason, and Jason explained that they’d wait, as long as Nico wanted, and Nico said that maybe in a month, or a week, or whenever, but he’d love to meet Thalia, and Jason had kissed him. They then proceeded to have the loudest and best make-up sex that Jason will be unable to recover from for days.

Afterwards Jason was whistling as he closed the door to Nico’s apartment.

“Hey, Jason Grace.”

He jumped to find Reyna standing across from him. She was smirking at him. He glanced around nervously.

“Uhm, hi, hello.”

She looked at the door. “What could you have possibly been doing in my apartment?”

Jason was sure he’d begun to sweat nervously until Reyna leaned into his ear and whispered, “Hurt him and I’ll come for you, Grace.”

Right, okay, not at all terrifying when an intimidatingly beautiful woman threatens to to come after you. He nodded curtly and tried to walk fast enough down the stairs that it didn’t look like running.

Two weeks later Jason and Nico were sitting in the park, feeding the birds, when Nico finally spoke.

“I think we should finally tell our friends.”

Jason smiled at him. “Really?”

Nico smiled and took his hand. It was the first time they’d ever held hands and Jason remember the words of a poet Nico had once read to him in the early morning as they lay in bed.

_In the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth between each other like a tree breathing through it's spectacles._

Nico had said it in the quiet and when Jason asked what breathing through spectacles meant Nico just gave a fond sigh and said that if he didn’t get it, it was okay. But Jason did it get. He got it now in that small thousand square feet park where people rode their bikes and children squealed in delight. Jason understood because the wind was rushing past his ears and it was cold out, being November, but he loved Nico. He could hear him cough in a room full of people and spot him in a crowded coffee shop. Jason knew what breathing through spectacles meant now because he’d been breathing in through his since the day he’d met Nico.

He smiled back and maybe it was dopey and he was alarmingly and deeply in love, but Jason didn’t mind that much.

“I’d like that.”

And they got hot chocolate and went home and when Jason put on his pajamas and curled on the sofa next to Nico they didn’t watch the clock. They didn’t spend time counting down the minutes until someone walked in. They sat, and they drank the cocoa from the cafe down the block, and when Percy and Annabeth showed up, laughing at some joke, Jason held on to Nico’s hand, securing him, holding him, trusting him.

Jason might be twenty one with no idea on the direction his life is going, and he might have no idea how he’ll get there or what will happen two years from now, but Jason loved Nico. Jason loves Nico still.

So it began like this: Jason has sex with a complete stranger nine months ago. He turns into Jason’s boyfriend. And four months from now, when Nico considers moving in together, Jason will give him a key and a ring to match. And he’s pretty sure Nico just might say yes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always! Submissions, headcanons, AUs, and prompts are always welcomed and can be submitted in the comments section! Until next time! :D


	15. Claim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jasico in the alpha/beta/omega dynamics verse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi I am the new co-author:) and this is my first abo fic please be kind:). Vituoso I hope this meets your standards and hope it will it not make you regret choosing me a a cowriter:P. Sorry for the cheesy ending i cant write smut:(

It started with finding the softest and fluffiest pillows and blankets before his heats. Which he gratefully used to line his heat nests. It soon escalated to his favourite dishes and snacks left thoughtfully outside his cabin almost daily. Nico had no idea who his secret admirer in camp but looked forward to meeting him/her.

 

 "Shit" Nico tripped and cursed looking down he saw yellow roses and his favourite chocolates and the normal pre heat gifts. He glared picked up both before squinting sleepily at the small card attached to them. "Roses are yellow. Violets are blue. It causes me sorrow that i dont have you." He blushed before taking the items into his cabins. 

 

However on his way to the feast grounds he was waylaid by 3 alphas leering at him. He immediately gave his best glare but in the peaceful years after the wars his glare had lost much of his potency. "Hey babe we only want to have some fun" replied one of them slinging their hand over Nicos shoulder. Nico immediately grabbed the offending arm and using it as a lever flipped the alpha to the ground before staring at the other 2 alphas with defiance burning in his gaze. 

 

However suddenly he doubled over crumpling to the floor whimpering as excruciating cramps started. He whimpered feeling like an inferno was bearing down on him. The 3 alphas inched closer towards him as he tried to crawl away painfully wilting all the surrounding grass in his panic and haste to get away. 

 

Just as a hand reached out to grab him, he heard a menancing roar and sighed in relief when he saw Jason approaching with lightning sparks dancing around his fingertips. The 3 alphas immediately turned and fled. Jason almost gave chase before he remembered Nico whimpering on the ground. Pinching his nose to avoid jumping Nico with the heavenly pheromones he emitted l. Jason quickly picked up Nico and carried him bridal style back to the hades cabin before running back to his own cabin to jack off.

 

A week later after Nico's heat ended he stumbled out of the cabin tired,sore and famished bumping into a solid wall of muscle he looked up and saw Jason holding out a divine smelling tortellini and roses.

 

"Do you accept my intentions?"asked Jason. "Yes." replied Nico averting his eyes. Jason grabbed Nico's chin and tilted it exposing his neck before nosing Nicos scent gland . He looked into Nico's black eyes and Nico nodded before Jason proceeded to stake his claim. Gods he smelled divine a small needy whine escaped from Nico's mouth. He started planting small butterfly kisses on Nicos oversensitive scent gland before locating a spot right above the collar bone that he bit. Nico yelped and moaned as the momentary pain turned into bliss. Jason lapped the tangy blood that oozed out before proceeding to massage his own scent glands and rubbed Nico spreading his scent liberally over Nico. "Mine" Jason rumbled. "Yours" Nico replied


	16. You Are The Songs I Sing To Sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written for AO3 user Anne. I'm so sorry this is a short one! I wanted to do a bit more with this one, but for now, I hope this is enough!
> 
>  
> 
> In which Nico sometimes sings Maroon 5 when he thinks no one is listening.  
> And sometimes, just maybe, Jason is listening.

 

_**Prompt:**  Do you think you could write one where both guys live on the same floor, but don't know each other and one of the guys is either singing part of a duet or is doing something in reference to a popular movie and the other just jumps in casually and that's how they meet?_

* * *

_"There’s an animal inside/ There’s a fear that won’t subside/ Of all the things I’ll never do/ Will I ever follow through?"_

Jason isn’t sure how old the building is, but he knows that it has to be older than a century when he starts to hear his neighbor singing.

Jason had just moved in last week, having lived in a small apartment with his sister for two years was different from having his own apartment, but with the singing Jason felt right at home. Or, well, he would have if it wasn’t three in the morning and he didn’t have work that day. Jason woke up to find that the voice through the walls wasn’t baritone but a normal pitch, if only a little deep, most likely a male. And they were singing really well, which was why Jason couldn’t bring himself to hate his neighbor. He listened as the person pitched and sang and changed their octaves until he finally lulled himself to sleep an hour.

He woke up bright and early and went to work.

Annabeth was already turning on the machines by the time he made his way to the cafe.

“You look like hell.” She said conversationally.

He nodded. “Neighbor was singing all night.”

She sighed. “Percy won’t stop. I know the feeling. I take it they sound as bad Percy does after a particularly bad hangover?”

Jason shook his head. “No, no, he was actually really good. I mean, I didn’t recognize the song, but it was nice.”

Annabeth nodded and with that they served the first person of the morning rush.

Jason went home and Piper was waiting for him on his couch, eating his food.

“You know, I thought only girlfriends were allowed to steal their boyfriend’s food.”

Piper laughed and shoved more food into her mouth. “Perks of being an ex-girlfriend and best friend.”

Jason sighed. “You better start paying me for all the food you and Leo eat while you’re here.”

Piper threw chips at him and laughed, knowing he would never actually take her up on that. No matter how much he warned he never took them up on it.

He sat down beside her and then they heard someone begin to sing.

_“To days of inspiration/ Playing hookie, making something out of nothing/ The need to express/ To communicate/ To going against the grain-”_

Piper looked at Jason who’d begun to hum along.

“Please do not tell me your next door neighbor loves Rent.”

Jason shrugged. “This is the first time I’ve heard them sing. I’ve only been here a week.”

Piper laughed. “And your neighbor sings your favorite musical really well? That can’t be a coincidence. It was fate.”

Jason flushed.

“You know that I only watched Rent once.”

Piper scoffed. “Please, we watched it three times in two weeks, once. Don’t act like that was because I wanted to watch it. You loved it.”

Jason rolled his eyes and got up to make dinner. “Whatever, are you going to help me with dinner?”

Piper looked towards the wall where his neighbor was still singing, except he seemed to be singing more emphatically.

“I think we should go say hi.”

Jason began to shake his head. “Oh no, no, no, we are not doing that.”

She looked at him with a demanding stare. “And why not?”

Jason sighed. “Because we’re not going to go over and tell him that we heard him singing through the walls. That’s a major breach in privacy.”

Piper sighed and went over to his stove. “Well you can’t expect to find a boyfriend or even new friends like that, goody two shoes.”

Jason sighed. “We talked about this, Pipes.”

She sighed and plopped down on one of the stools right beside the island counter.

“I know. I know, but it’s _Rent_.”

It didn’t happen again while Jason was aware until Sunday.

_“Sunday morning, rain is falling/ Steal some covers, share some skin.”_

He perked up. “Hey, a song I know.”

The man continued and Jason began to sing along in a soft voice. _“Clouds are shrouding us in moments unforgettable/ You twist to fit the mold that I am in/ But things just get so crazy, living life gets hard to do/ And I would gladly hit the road, get up and go if I knew/ That someday it would lead me back to you/ That someday it would lead me back to you.”_

Jason waned off but he listened to the man’s voice carry as he sang.

Jason laid in bed and wondered if maybe he was up and making breakfast, letting the sunlight stream through his curtains and sat beside someone maybe, or alone, and just sang casually. Jason put his book down and listened for a few minutes, listening to the voice of the man. He sounded so in love. Jason wondered if maybe he was just that good at singing, or maybe the guy was actually in love and sang it out. The song ended slowly and Jason closed his eyes.

“I hope you have a good Sunday.” He said quietly.

Jason knew something was wrong when he heard the opening lines of the next song at midnight on a Saturday.

_“Howling ghosts they reappear in mountains that are stacked with fear/ But you're a king and I'm a lionheart, a lionheart/ His crown lit up the way as we moved slowly/ Past the wondering eyes of the ones that were left behind.”_

He was watching some documentary on aliens when he heard the verses drifting through the walls. The man sounded mournful and for a moment Jason was reminded of his mother. The man sounded sad and Jason listened, figured that maybe listening was what was best for the man while he mourned. Jason wondered what could make such a beautiful voice so sad. He went to his room to listen to the voice better and it wasn’t until he was laying in bed that he realized he’d started to cry listening to the song.

He closed his eyes, promising himself that tomorrow he’d go and see what was wrong.

Jason never did that. Because the next day, Jason woke up and heard a new song being sung.

_“This is for the snakes and the people they bite; For the friends I’ve made; for the sleepless nights; For the warning signs I’ve completely ignored./ There’s an amount to take, reasons to take more.”_

Jason listened to the man continue singing. The song seemed to depressing, so slow and bland like the person singing it had given up on what they were feeling. Jason began to feel heavy in his heart and it got harder to get out of bed.

_“And they cut your hair, and sent you away/ You stopped by my house the night you escaped/ With tears in my eyes, I begged you to stay/ You said, ‘Hey man, I love you but no fucking way’.”_

Jason wondered what had happened that made this man sing songs like this. Jason heard his voice crack over the matching instrumentals, and he forced himself to get out of the bed and go have breakfast. He heard the tunes of a song he had never heard before and tried not to think about how Thalia used to listen to music like that when she curled up in her room and cried. She cried for so long.

Jason turned on the blender to block out the sounds. And maybe, just maybe, he would be able to block out the memories of things from a long time ago.

His day went well after that. He went to work, visited his sister, hugged her for a long time, and when he got home late at night and he was laying in bed he tried to ignore the sound of crying that broke through the walls.

Jason woke up bright and early and went to stretch his legs on the balcony. His terrace overlooked the other buildings in New York City and as the sun began to rise Jason watched lamps turn on, dog walkers emerge, businessmen rush, and he watched the city come to life. It was a stark contrast from the way he had felt all day after listening to that sad song and the crying from last night. He wondered if the man ever left his apartment and what he might be like, to be so sad, and so lonely.

He turned to get the panoramic view of the city when he saw the man out on his balcony.

He wasn’t so much a man as he looked like a young guy, like Jason, early twenties. He wore straight cut black pants and a grey cardigan over a black shirt. He looked harried, his black hair curling wildly, and there were bags under his eyes. If it were for the unhealthy skin complexion and the bags under his eyes, Jason was sure he could make for a very attractive guy. Jason must have been staring for a long time because the guy turned to him.

“You know it’s impolite to stare?”

Jason should have said sorry, should have just kept his answer polite and simple, instead he blurted out, “So is singing at midnight.”

The guy seemed momentarily shocked before he frowned. It looked sadder than anything Jason had ever seen before. “I thought that no one was listening.”

Jason shook his head. “I listened.”

The guy nodded. “I’m Nico. The guy who sings in the apartment next to you.”

Jason smiled brightly at him. “I’m Jason, and I’m the guy who sometimes sings along.”

 

* * *

 

 

List of songs used in this fic:

  * Hearts Like Ours- The Naked Famous
  * La Vie Boheme- Rent Cast
  * Sunday Morning- Maroon 5
  * King and Lionheart- Of Monsters and Men
  * Twin Size Mattress- The Front Bottoms



**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I have always said, comments for submission of headcanons, prompts, and AUs are always accepted! :D You can even go to my tumblr which is mentioned in previous chapters. I hope you enjoyed this installment!


	17. Can You Be What I'm Looking For?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Author is super sorry she didn't update and hopes that this makes up for it even though she is still super sorry for the hiatus.

_**PROMPT:** can i ask for a jasico where they're best friends and jason asks nico to help him plan his date with piper? like the premise is that jason has a crush on piper (who doesnt really like him back) and asked for a date with her, to which she agreed to. and now he's freaking out and he's asking for help from his best friend aka person who he doesnt know has a crush on him, to plan the date._

 

* * *

**_“My heart has known you since the very beginning._ **

**_It has always known.”_ **

**_-Aishwarya Nair_ **

 

Nico is a masochist.

He has to be.

Otherwise he wouldn’t be doing this to himself.

Nico di Angelo is not surprised at all when he became a little bit more than attached to Jason. A hero’s complex. Nico always had a problem with that, he knew.

Nico di Angelo was ten the time he realized that Percy Jackson was a godsend. He was also ten when he realizes he can’t trust Percy Jackson. What followed after that was a few years of romantic repression and frustration, a reveal of romantic feelings when he’s fourteen, a heart wrenching talk a few weeks later, and a year and a half of getting over something that just won’t stop bugging his brain.

The problem: Nico traded one problem for another.

Jason was Nico’s best friend the moment he met their combined group of friends and Jason stuck by his side. It got worse when Jason realized that Nico was gay and proceeded to be the self declared bodyguard of a boy who was perfectly capable of defending himself. Nico would begrudge and bemoan all the efforts made on Jason’s part, but after Bianca died and Nico was left with only a father, one who spent more time in his office than at home, Nico was secretly pleased. Nico was pleased by the easy effort, the comfortable talks and the amiable silences. Nico was always prompted to say things in conversation, but Jason spoke freely and let Nico interject when he was ready and willing.

Nico di Angelo is fifteen when he decides that the blooming his chest, that feeling like he’s going into cardiac arrest and having heartburn simultaneously, is love. Nico is fifteen when he understands what love is. He’s young, sure, and there are so many reasons for Nico to battle it with scorn and guilt and anger, but he can’t. Nico isn’t like that. Nico doesn’t want to end up like his father who will never talk about his mother or his sister so he locks them away in dusty cobwebbed rooms that he will never enter. Because if Nico opens those doors it means admitting that on the other side, no one is waiting. Nico learned that day when Percy came back from a trip without Bianca that waiting was hopeless.

Nico was. . . kind of a depressing kid. But he believed he earned the right to be.

So Nico is an amalgamation of equal parts sadness, regret, and a tinge of hope for things to get better. Jason Grace somehow happened along and turned those small embers into a fire that burns steadily rather than wildly. Nico started to believe in strange things like bright futures, comfy homes, and partners who love you. Anyone who looked at Jason Grace and saw the way he talked about his friends knew why. Jason Grace was kind of a ray of sunshine and even if Nico had lived for ages in the dark, Jason brought sunlight.

Nico doesn’t mention that part.

Nico doesn’t mention anything for a while. Jason Grace was still his friend, still his body guard, and Nico was fine with that.

Until he wasn’t.

Jason came to Nico one afternoon right after school and threw his door open in panic. Jason is the only one who had the right to barge in. Nico may or may not believe in nepotism.

“You’ve got to help me.” Jason said.

Nico closed the book he was reading. “Did you lose your glasses when they were on your head again?”

After the explaining what he needed from Nico, Nico kept the hammering in his chest to himself. He felt even worse when Jason talked about Piper McLean and how he needed someone he could trust to help him. He ranted and raved about her seemingly endless list of amazing characteristics with unbridled enthusiasm. Nico, begrudgingly, would admit that most of them are true. Piper McLean is possibly the third person who admires Nico and treated him like a friend rather than an outsider. Nico would most likely agree more emphatically if not for the simply fact that he had, in an ugly bout of jealousy, not wanted to hear all those things coming specifically from Jason. Nico will most likely feel bad later for the way he kind of hates Piper in that instance, but for now he was focused on the way Jason is going on and on, and tried to focus.

He sighed in fond exasperation before he shook his head and focusing on the Jason’s various date ideas. Minutes later he felt himself growing mildly horrified as each date suggestion Jason put through seemed worse than the ones before. Nico would go so far as to say that he almost felt sorry for Piper, and sympathy is not a feeling Nico handed out lightly. Taking a deep breath he massaged his brows before interjecting.

“Let me get this right, you want to take her to watch Saw at the local dollar theatre and finishing with picking up dinner from In and Out Burger.”

“Yes.” Jason replied eying him as though he was confused by the disapproving tone in Nico’s voice.

Nico sighed.

“Maybe Piper would like that. Maybe not. But do _not_ go with option number three.”

Jason made a noise of indignation. “What’s so bad about option three?”

Nico would like to point out that _everything_  is bad about option three.

Nico shook his head. “Just don’t do it. Anyway, when will you be asking her?”

Jason shrugged. “Maybe this week.”

Nico nodded. A week.

Nico kept that horrifying feeling in the pit of his stomach to himself. To tell Jason Grace that he had been in love with him for nearly a year would require courage. And while Nico was aware that he had amazing qualities, being courageous was not one of them. Well, in all fairness, and because Hazel had been telling him to cut himself some slack, Nico has courage. Just not when it comes to confessing to bright-eyed boys who belong on the covers of magazines.

Jason stayed after that and while Nico went back to reading while Jason did his homework while splayed across the bed with Nico.

Nico was supposed to be reading, but he couldn’t process a single word. Nico thought about what it would be like if Jason hadn’t been like Percy Jackson and had loved him back. How easy it would be, if it would be like those conversations they had where Jason carried the weight of the conversation or if they’d be an exchanging of words, easy and compatible and so effortless in fitting into each other that Nico felt as if he’d been part of him long before. Nico wondered, not for the first time, if Jason would talk to him, about him, the way he did about all the girls he’d loved, or thought he did.

Nico shook his head to focus, but the words blurred together anyway.

**  
  
**

Piper would like to go on record and say that yes, Reyna is most likely the most attractive female she has ever seen, and that no, she didn’t intend to ask her out any time soon.

The story is this: Piper liked Reyna. That was very simple and very obvious, even to Reyna. Reyna also liked Piper. But the problem being that like all teenage relationships no one was willing to make the first move. They’d been skirting around each other, flirting, but never taking what they wanted and always too scared to reach out.

Jason made the first move.

On a Friday sometime in the middle of November Jason went up to Piper during study hall, swallowed the nervousness and bile in his throat and said simply:

“Hey, Pipes, wanna go on a date?”

Piper was looking for a book and nearly dropped it in shock. She recovered and looked at him.

“With you?”

He nodded, wringing his hands. “Yeah.”

Piper should have said no. That would have been smart, and then right after she should have ran all the way across the school to the Latin American Students’ club and asked Reyna for one stupid date to finally end the romantic tension. But Piper, much like Nico, is not brave around people who belong on the covers of magazines. Jason also belonged on the cover of magazines but Piper had been around him so long she barely felt affected by it. It also helped that he certainly wasn’t the person she’d had in mind asking for a date.

Piper considered it for a moment. Considered Nico and his forlorn looks and maybe, with the best intentions in mind, Piper could help things along. A little Operation Jealousy might give Nico the much needed push and guts to finally ask Jason out. How bad could it possibly end up?

She smiled at him. “Sure.”

However the road to hell was paved with good intentions, Piper would like to go on record and say that the way things spiralled out of control is definitely not her fault. Or, well, not intentionally anyway.

People heard about the date in that way only high schoolers can gossip like crazy. Piper and Jason soon became the most talked about golden couple in the school. Nico got wind of it by the end of the day and he’d only sighed and went on with his last work of the day.

When he went home and Hazel arrived an hour later with Frank he left his room to find them in the kitchen, making supper.

Hazel gave him a sympathetic look the moment he walked in. It would have bothered him if not for the simple fact that Hazel was the most important person in his life and he never minded.

“I’m so sorry, Nico.”

Frank nodded. “It really sucks.”

That, Nico thought, was the wisest thing someone had ever told him.

He sat down in one of the chairs in the small dining room when his phone rang.

“Please tell me he didn’t do it.”

Nico sighed. “Hello, Reyna.”

Reyna sighed as well. “Did you tell him that she might not even like him?”

Nico nodded to no one in particular and Hazel and Frank had looked too invested in supper so Nico supposed they’d just been giving him privacy.

“Tried to. He was kind of busy talking about how great Piper was.”

In Jason’s defense, Nico will second that Piper actually is pretty great.

“Of course he was. When is the date?” Reyna asked.

“Tomorrow.”

She cursed. “And you’re sure she said yes?”

Nico made a strangled noise that sounded like a cross between a sigh and a grunt.

She sighed once more. “I’m sorry.”

Nico furrowed his brow. “What for?”

“I know that you had your heart set on telling him soon.”

Nico shook his head. “No. It’s not like that anymore.”

Reyna snorted. “Please. Nico, do yourself a favor and at least don’t lie to me of all people.”

He let out a breath. “Good-bye, Reyna.”

She seemed to chuckle and hang up.

Hazel turned around. “He’s going on the date tomorrow?”

Nico shrugged and gave them a rueful smile. “Better late than never.”

Frank sat across from him, he seemed nervous but he pressed on. “I’m sorry.”

Nico gave him a smile, it was small and forced and stifled by feelings that Nico wouldn’t acknowledge.

“Me too.”

Jason realized a little too late that at a movie you can’t talk. This was most likely the worst first date he’d ever been on. He started regretting his movie choices when he saw the look of revulsion and green tinge on Piper’s face and belatedly realised that a gory torture movie was not the best first date movie.

When the movie finally finished and they were walking out of the theater, Piper turned to him.

“You know I’m a vegetarian.” Piper excused herself and ran to the nearby bushes to puke.

Jason watched in horror and when she walked back, slightly pale, and a bit wobbily he offered his hand.

“I’m so sorry!”

She shook her head. “You didn’t know, just, maybe never do that with me again.”

Jason shrugged. “Nico and I really like those movies so I figured maybe we could give it a try.”

Piper rolled her eyes internally and wondered why she was even here. Externally she gave him a sickly sweet smile.

“Nico’s really great isn’t he?”

And that set things into course. Jason spent the half hour drive back to her house talking  the entire way about Nico. If she hadn’t known any better Piper would have nearly socked him for the way he spoke so fondly for so long. He didn’t seem to show any sign of stopping and Piper finally piped up when they had been sitting for fifteen minutes in her driveway.

“Well I should get inside.”

Jason cut off and smiled at her. “Okay! Maybe, we could, uh, do this again? With less vomitting?”

Piper smiled at him. “I’d like that.”

She got out of the car after giving him a kiss on the cheek and when she closed the front door behind her she dialed her phone. Once Jason was out of view she wrung her hands in exasperation muttering about oblivious dense bone heads.

“I really have my work cut out for me.”

Nico got a call at ten at night on the Saturday he’d come to think of the worst Saturday in the history of Saturdays.

“Okay, here’s what’s happening, I need your help.” Piper said in a hushed tone.

Nico tried not to be bitter. She probably needed help to get Jason to fall even more in love with her.

“Piper?”

Piper sighed and went to her room to find gum to rinse that bitter taste out of her mouth.

“Listen, di Angelo, I know for a matter of fact you are in love with Jason.”

Nico’s heart tightened and he impulsively responded with, “No, I’m not.”

Piper resisted the urge to hit her head on the nearest hard surface multiple times, even harder to resist was the urge to slam Jason’s and Nico’s heads onto said hard surface until it cracked.

Piper rolled her eyes and massaged her temples. “Yeah, sure, okay, whatever. But I need your help because I want to be your wingman.”

“What?” Nico said.

“I SAID-”

Nico shook his head. “No, no, no, I got that. But why are you helping me?”

Piper sighed. “Because you two are my friends and are so obviously crazy about each other even if Jason is too dense to notice it.”

“Friend. . .” Nico trailed off, slightly shocked by the entire conversation.

Piper rolled her eyes again. “Yes, despite what you think I do happen to think of you as a friend, Nico.”

Nico shook his head. “No. This is a bad idea.” To Nico that was an understatement this idea felt on par with a one way free fall descent in straight into the depths of Tartarus.

Piper wanted to strangle him through the phone. “Nico, good ideas have not worked for you so far, so don’t you think it’s time to try something else?”

Nico shook his head. “This is only going to end badly.”

Piper cackled gleefully, Nico thought she sounded like an evil genius. “All the more reason to do it.”

With the first disastrous date under Jason’s belt, he found himself floundering for second date ideas and by the end of the week he decided to seek out Nico for date planning advice again. Jason realized that for the first time since they’d met Nico’s presence had been scarce. Jason didn’t even remember seeing him during their shared lunch period.

Nico felt a sense of deja vu that afternoon when his door was thrown open hastily and the words, “You’ve got to help me,” were uttered for the second time in recent memory. He gave a barely audible sigh and agreed. Most likely against his better judgement.

Jason noticed that Nico seemed a tad more exhausted than usual when listening to his date ideas. The crease between Nico’s eyebrows that always seemed to be there became more furrowed as he listened attentively to Jason. Jason found himself resisting the urge to rub at the crease between Nico’s eyebrows and the crinkles that appeared above Nico’s nose to smoothen them. However he settled instead for ruffling Nico’s hair and marveling at the impossibly soft texture of Nico’s hair. Nico shot him one of his patented death glares before grabbing his hand and removing it from his hair and he felt a spark of static pulse through his hand. The air seemed charged before Nico swallowed and glanced away.

“I think you should go with option 2.”

Jason pushed that encounter to the back of his mind before clapping Nico on the back and resolving to ask Nico to sleep more. He ignored the way Nico seemed to flinch.

The next day Reyna came over and as Nico was making lunch she sat down right across from him, Nico looked over to find Will was with her. They were both frowning.

He sighed and put down the spoon he was using. “What now?”

Will frowned petulantly. “Nothing.”

Nico snorted. “Spit it out, Will.”

Reyna shook her head. “He’s just upset because he finally heard the news that Jason Grace is dating Piper.”

Nico nodded in realization. “Ah.”

Will threw his hands up. “That’s all you have to say?! You’ve been pining for, like, at least a year!”

Nico frowned at him. “I am not.”

“You are.” Reyna interjected lightly.

Will huffed. “The point being, Jason Grace is dating someone who isn’t you. What is up with that?”

Nico sighed and tried to not to sound so sad when he spoke. “Jason loves Piper.”

Will snorted and shook his head rapidly. “Bullshit. He thought he loved Reyna when he was twelve. Jason is in love with you.”

Nico glowered at him. “How would you know?”

Will banged his head against the dining table. “Oh my god, you should listen to him fawn about you at our track meets. ‘Oh gosh I hope Nico is coming!’. Or even better, ‘I want to show Nico I’ve been practicing so I can win a race for him.’ It’s pathetic! If I have to hear either of you talk about each other like that and you’re still friends I will strangle myself!”

Reyna gave Nico a look. “Will’s being a bit dramatic because his theatre director told him he didn’t have enough flare.”

Will glared at her. “Is not.”

Reyna looked at Nico. “Is too. By the way, I am considering the strangling method as well, but on you and Jason.”

Nico sighed and went back to the food cooking on the stove. “It would never work.”

Reyna smiled at him and it was a fierce smile full of determination.

“I’d be willing to bet.”

“The point is,” Will scooted a little bit away from her, “you need to show Jason that he needs to be with you.”

Nico sighed. “Will, I thought you were better than to homewreck happy people.”

Will groaned. “Don’t play the morality card on me. Everyone in this room knows that Piper is in love with Reyna. You’re not wrecking anything.”

Nico sighed. “Piper already asked to help me.”

Reyna turned to him quickly. “She did?”

Nico smirked. “How is that going by the way?”

Reyna cleared her throat and composed herself. “It’s. . . not. She’s with Jason.”

Will turned to her. “Please for the love of all that is holy tell me you didn’t make like death boy here and stop fighting for her?”

Nico made a noise of protest. Reyna scooted away from him this time, and her eyes cast downward.

Will groaned even louder. “Idiots. Everyone’s an idiot. Am I the only sane person here. Why do I have to get everything done by myself?..”

Tuning out Will’s angry rant, Nico turned to Reyna. “Why did you stop?”

She seemed to avoid his eyes for the first time in his memory. “I thought it best.”

Will stopped his rant in mid sentence, mouth agape for several seconds struck speechless. However those few seconds of blessed silence ended as Will’s righteous fervor was relit anew “Thought it best? Thought it best?!”

Will shot up from his seat and paced around. “Why am I friends with you both? Someone needs to explain it to me.”

Nico snorted. “Don’t look at me. I suggested we never talk again when we broke up two years ago and stop wearing holes in my carpet.”

Will stopped and looked up at the ceiling and he made a motion as if he was praying. “And now I have seen the error of my ways. Why did I choose to befriend self-sacrificing emotionally constipated heroes? Whoever is up in the sky, please forgive me. Please.”

Hazel walked in just then with Frank in tow. They both had furrowed brows.

“Forgive you for what?” Frank asked.

Will glared at them both with baleful eyes. “Emotionally constipated friends.”

Hazel cleared her throat. “Who’s emotionally constipated?”

Will was quick to point both of his index fingers at Reyna and Nico.

Hazel sighed sympathetically. “I’m so sorry, Will.”

Frustration finally drained out of him, Will slumped back into his chair, massaging his aching temples. “We have our work cut out for us.”

The second date, well it’s nice. Jason and Piper stayed at home and watched movies and just sat with each other. At the end of the night when Jason dropped Piper off to her house they kissed. For some reason Jason was expecting more. They kissed and the soft meld of lips was comfortable, but Jason figured for how on love he was, maybe there would have been more. Maybe it was because they’d known each other too long for the spark to really be prominent, but Jason enjoyed it either way, as he pushed his doubts of his mind.

Piper didn’t mind it, Piper tended to not mind kissing people, but it wasn’t Reyna.

Jason went home and dialed his phone.

Nico picked up.

“Hello?”

Jason sighed into the receiver. “I don’t know what I did wrong.”

Nico furrowed his eyebrows. “Wait, what?”

Jason sat down in his room and flopped down on that bed. “I kissed her.”

Nico swallowed the lump in his throat. “Piper?”

Jason nodded to his empty room. “Yeah. But I didn’t. . . I didn’t feel anything. Nico, you gotta help me, I really like her.”

Nico nodded. “Okay, well, why do you think it didn’t work?”

Jason groaned. “I don’t know. I just kissed her and it wa nice, but I didn’t feel special. It felt like I was kissing my best friend.”

“Well, you can like kissing your best friend, it can be special sometimes.” Nico knew that more than he’d like to admit.

Jason sighed before he breathed out slowly and nodded. “You right. You’re right. I can make it special.”

He hung up and Nico sat back. Hazel and Frank looked at him from their spots at the dinner table. Frank was giving him a concerned and sympathetic look and Hazel just frowned, her signal for wondering if it was okay to hug Nico.

“I’m an idiot.” Nico said, simply.

Hazel sighed. “I think you just want to help your friend.”

Nico sighed and looked down at the food on his plate. He began to eat without another word.

The next day while Piper was home doing homework before the weekend there came a soft knock on her door.

“Come in.” She called. She looked up to find Reyna standing there.

Piper stilled.

“Oh, uhm, hi.”

Reyna walked into the room. “Hello.”

Piper looked around the room. “Sit. I mean, uhm, why are you, why are you here?”

Reyna sat down by her vanity mirror and the way she sat up straight intimidated Piper. Almost everything about Reyna was impeccable, and if it wasn’t, well it just made her even better.

“I heard that your dates were going well.”

Piper nodded and looked down at the the papers she had spread out. “Yeah.”

And there it was again. Reyna aching to reach out and Piper always just out of reach. And Piper was never brave enough to take what she wanted. Grandpa Tom had taught her to take the things she wanted, to live without the regrets of an old person, but Piper couldn’t force herself to take this single thing. Piper was with Jason now, he was happy. She was happy.

Reyna sighed. “If it makes you so unhappy you could just break up with him. You owe him nothing.”

Piper sighed. “It’s not that easy.”

Reyna frowned. “But it is. The longer you wait the more he’ll fall in love with you. You’ll only hurt him.”

Piper knew she was right but only responded to her with silence. After a few seconds of tense silence Reyna got up and simply left. Piper let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding.

For a week Jason didn’t see Piper. And it was good, because his doubts from Friday had only festered by Monday morning.

It started Monday morning. He saw Nico in their first class and smiled at him. Nico smiled back at him and when class started they paired up and got to work. Jason liked being around Nico. There weren’t complicated feelings with Nico. Everything was straightforward and lined out and blunt. Jason enjoyed that.

Jason realized how much he’d been ignoring Nico when they sat down at lunch and Nico looked at him in surprise.

“Oh.”

Jason just frowned at him as Hazel and Frank watched them intently.

“What?”

Nico just shook his head. “Nothing, you’ve just not been sitting with us lately. I thought you’d sit with Piper.”

Jason felt a twinge in his chest when Nico looked down with a frown on his face. “Well, I guess I’m back here with you guys.”

Hazel smiled at him. “That’s good.”

Nico smiled at him but it was tighter than the other ones Jason had seen.

If Jason had stayed with his other friends it would have made it easier for Nico to pretend that the way he was feeling about Jason didn’t exist.

Tuesday was better. Jason saw Nico in their first class and whatever had bothered him yesterday had been gone because he was smirking and laughing at Jason’s jokes. Jason noticed that for some reason the way Nico laughed quietly at his jokes made him feel something in the pit of his stomach. He thought it was satisfaction. When they went to lunch and he spent the entire hour laughing with Nico and watching Hazel and Frank watch them with an amused glint in their eyes Jason completely forgot about his problem with Piper until Nico mentioned.

“So how are things going with Piper?”

Jason’s eyes widened. “I completely forgot about her!”

Even Nico, who was a proclaimed fan of Jason, sighed. “How does she put up with you?”

Jason chuckled and wrung his hands. “Actually, I don’t know. But I might. . . break up, with her?”

Nico looked at him. “I thought it was going great?”

Jason sighed. “It was, but. . . I think I was in love with this idea of her that I made up in my mind. I’m not disappointed, but I think it’s not fair to her.”

Nico stared at him for a moment, until he doubled over laughing.

Jason watched him in shock as he laughed for what seemed like forever. Jason had never heard him laugh so fully. Jason watched his pink cheeks become redder as he continued laughing. When he finally finished laughing he wiped tears from his eyes and sighed.

“I can’t believe you turned Piper into a Manic Pixie Dream girl. That is so shitty.”

He said the words affectionately and maybe it was the way the lights from the houses and streetlamps gave Nico this soft glow, or it was the cheeks pinched pink from the cold, or how mirthful his dark brown eyes looked, but Jason was suddenly struck with an almost uncontrollable urge to reach out and touch Nico.

“Yeah.” He said, nearly in shock.

Nico just shook his head and kept walking. When Jason stood there frozen, shocked, Nico turned back to him with a smile.

“Well, come on, loverboy. You coming or what?”

Jason walked after him. He definitely would have to break up with Piper now.

Wednesday was a terrible day for Jason. In the morning right before he entered the building he pulled Piper aside and explained what had happened. Piper, saint that she is, knew the whole time. Jason told her about Nico and she laughed for five minutes. Jason was getting kind of tired of it. She patted his shoulder and told him he should go for it.

Piper then texted Nico the news.

Nico sat panicked in his seat before class as Jason came up to him. Having the moment you’ve waited forever to experience, suddenly in view was more daunting than he’d been expecting.

Jason felt worse when Nico began to act jumpy as they did their project together. When the class ended Nico bolted out of the room and when lunch came and Jason sat beside Hazel and Frank he looked around.

“Where’s Nico?” He asked.

Frank was about to open his mouth, but Hazel elbowed him and looked at Jason. “Nico’s sick.”

Jason knew it was a lie but he looked down at his food and sighed, wondering if Nico might show up.

Nico went home early and called his father.

“Hello?”

Nico sighed. “Hello, father. I am taking a break from school and using the duplex in New York City.”

His father only grunted, saying he’d put money on his card, and Nico hung up.

Jason didn’t see Nico for the last days of school before Winter break.

He stood by Nico’s locker the hour before school was being let out, he figured Nico would have to come get his things.

Hazel walked up to him when everyone had gone home after school.

“He’s gone, Jason.”

Jason looked at him. “What?”

Hazel nodded. “He went to New York City early. He won’t be back until next year.”

Jason sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “Can you tell me where he is?”

Hazel looked down and frowned. “He told me not to tell you.”

Jason nodded. “No, no, I understand. I wouldn’t want to make you choose. Have a nice break, Hazel.”

She nodded and smiled sadly at him. “Bye, Jason.”

Nico spent the first couple of weeks of Winter break hearing it from almost everyone. Reyna, Piper, Hazel, and Frank all stayed in the duplex with him. And everyone one of them seemed to feel that it was their business to interject about Nico and Jason’s nonexistent relationship.

Nico didn’t want to talk about it. He wanted to be left alone. Jason would ask Nico to date him and then he’d realize how wrong Nico was for him, and then they’d end up barely talking, like Percy, except that had ended in a fell swoop of romantic confessions. Nico wasn’t an idiot.

It was Christmas Eve when he finally turned on his phone. 21 text messages, 14 missed calls, and seven voicemails.

Nico sighed, went through them and ignored the voicemails. He deleted them.

He sent out a text.

_**Hey.** _

_**3:45 pm** _

He waited patiently for Jason to text him back. Instead a call came in and he knew he couldn’t ignore it anymore.

He closed his eyes and braced himself as he picked up the phone.

“Hi.”

“Hello.” There wasn’t any yelling. Nico was actually surprised by that.

“You called me?”

“Well I kind of didn’t have any other option when you shut off your phone and went on complete radio silence.”

Nico sighed. “I was stressed.”

Jason didn’t believe that one bit. He had to discover that Jason loved him. Someone had to have told him. Jason couldn’t blame Piper because there were a lot of people around them when he had confessed the feelings. Anyone could have heard him.

“Right.”

Nico hated the way the conversation didn’t seem easy anymore. Everything was harder.

“Well, I just called to say merry Christmas.”

Jason wasn’t sure what had happened, but he hated the way Nico’s voice sounded forced, like he couldn’t stand talking to Jason.

He could tell him now that it was a joke. He could play it off and make it easier on both of them. Jason could fix this all with just a few words.

“Merry Christmas.” He said.

The line when silent and Nico stared at his phone for a while. He sighed and went to join Hazel and Reyna in watching A Christmas Story.

Jason and Nico texted a few times after Christmas. When New Years’ Eve came and Nico went to Time Square, he was not expecting Jason to be there. They were surrounded and crowded and pushed together, but when Nico looked over and found Jason standing just a few feet away he turned forward, quickly. Pretending he hadn’t seen him would be easier.

Jason saw Nico just a little ways away and he watched him the entire time. With people screaming and shouting and drunk Jason tried to block them out as he watched Nico looked up at the lights and the singers and the grandeur of the plaza. His eyes were bright and Jason realized why it had hurt so much that Nico hadn’t told him he was leaving, or where he was leaving to. It was 11:45 when Jason started trying to push through the crowd. It was hard to move and when it was 11:55 Jason realized he was only halfway to the distance that closed between them. Jason pushed harder, trying to ignore the shouts of indignation and pushing anyway. He was four feet away when everyone started cheering. Jason looked up to find that the clock read 11:59. Jason pushed harder and when he finally found a gap to go through to finally get to Nico he tried to push.

**10**

Jason pushed through the gap.

**9**

Jason tripped and nearly knocked over a couple as he tried to to recover. He apologized and looked up to find he’d lost time from the countdown

**6**

Jason was frantic now, pushing just that last part.

**5**

Jason turned Nico around quickly.

**4**

Jason shouted over the crowd.

**3**

He pushed himself just the last little part over that stupid little cliff of always having loved Nico, but never thinking too much of it.

**2**

“I love you.” He shouted over the crowd.

**1**

They kissed.

 

Nico will tell everyone later that it is the noisest, busiest, stupidest way to have their first kiss. But he pulled Jason closer by the straps of his scarf and as people shout and cheer and the ball of the New Year comes falling down Nico thought the best thing about Time Square for the New Year is how Jason tasted like hot chocolate and something new.

They lay spent later on that night, their friends all gone, still out celebrating. Nico lay there staring up at the ceiling, a small smile on his lips.

Jason kissed him up his jaw and sighed happily.

Nico looked at him. “How did you find out? That you loved me.”

Jason sighed and smiled at him. “It was always you. I think I was just too much of an idiot to realize it.”

Nico laughed and gave him a kiss.

“You said it, not me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! So, news for all readers! Remember that I am always ready for submissions! Also, I might be a bit slow on updating regular drabbles because I am actually going to start writing my 25 days of christmas prompts for Jasico! Feel free to submit for those too! Just please be patient! :D Have a cosmic day!


	18. Speak Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So I got a prompt I was finally excited to do and I really hope you all enjoy it! 
> 
> In which our queers just can't seem to get their act together and maybe Drew Tanaka is exactly who everyone thought she was.

**Prompt:** _Could you write something inspired by Taylor Swift's Speak Now? (so sorry if you don't like t.swift hahaha) it can be Nico interrupting Jason's wedding or the other way around, I don't really care as long as it's Jasico ;) thanks so much <3_

 

* * *

 

It starts with a wedding proposal when Nico is twenty three.

Nico, Reyna, and the seven had left behind Camp Half-Blood to finally live in New York City when Nico turned eighteen. Sure there had been monsters, but after the war it seemed that gradually less and less of them showed up. Reyna went into military strategy and work. Annabeth and Percy went to New Rome and settled down, both of them twenty five, to finally start a life together. Leo opened up his auto shop named after his mother, Piper went into teaching, barely starting a new job when she was twenty three, two years ago. Frank and Hazel stayed in New Rome and left behind the Legion to go to college and had decided to both open up a restaurant. It left Jason to work as a Classics major and go into teaching too. He’d work with Percy’s step-father and occasionally he’d slip up and try and tell the students about myths as though he’d lived them, which he had. Nico, well, Nico became a writer. He was talented and brilliant and finally not under the pressures of demigod living and the pressures of who his father was, Nico let it go. Five years. Jason and Nico had lived on their own for five years.

So really it starts six months before a wedding proposal. Jason left the camps behind and a lot of demigods followed suit. Drew Tanaka was one of them. So Jason and Drew start dating the day Nico turns twenty two. (They hook up at his party and Jason doesn’t have the heart to tell her that he’s kind of already in love with Nico.) She is different, maybe. She’s nicer, but still harsh at times. She’s still judgmental, but less so. Jason thinks that Drew really has changed from the sixteen year old girl who loved to make others down to feel up. Nico doesn’t necessarily believe that, but having thirteen years of distrust and emotional distance is really a basis, so he tries to be supportive. It should be known that Jason has no idea that Nico is in love with him, and vice versa. Aphrodite may or may not get Drew back for the reputation she gave the Aphrodite cabin by the events that soon follow.

So Drew and Jason love (see: like) each other. Drew has her bouts of sweet compassion and despite Piper’s vehement disapproval of the woman she has always been, Jason’s friends like her. It’s most important that Nico like her. And when they smile and exchange awkward jokes Jason feels hopefully that Drew may fill the hole that unrequited love can’t.

Drew and Jason are sitting alone in his apartment six months into dating when it happens.

“So, Jason,” Drew starts.

Jason looks up from his take out box. “Yes?”

“We should get married.” She says simply.

And now, Jason has to think. Because Drew is nice. She is kind and sweet, in her own ways, and she has changed from the girl she used to be. But the problem is that Jason, even after six months of great sex, even better dates, and confiding in Drew in ways he never thought he would, and his sixteen year old self promised he wouldn’t, Jason is still in love with Nico helplessly.

Drew lets out a sigh when he doesn’t speak for more than a minute. “Okay, okay, forget it. I get it.”

Jason furrows his eyebrows together. “What?”

Drew frowns. “I get the feeling you’ll never get over your feelings for Nico.”

Jason gulps. Really he should, he can’t, he wouldn’t. But Nico is dating a mortal who is into filming and mythomagic and Jason is a History teacher and hates talking about his feelings. They may not correlate, but for Jason they do. Nico is happy, and just as Drew and he are eating their takeout, Nico is on a date with Gavin the film major who can afford to take him to the new place on 134th street. Jason can’t.

So Jason swallows back the doubt and he plunges forward. “No, no, sweetie. I would love to. I would love to marry you. I love you.”

It isn’t until Nico calls him, upset that he didn’t call him this morning, that Jason realizes he got engaged on Nico’s birthday.

And later on Piper will call him volatile and Thalia will sigh into the receiver in a disappointed way, and maybe Jason just made the biggest mistake of his life, but in the back of his mind he knows he hasn’t.

The biggest mistake was falling for Nico di Angelo.

Nico hears about the wedding proposal from Jason first.

Jason is sitting next to him as they watch a cooking show on Food Network and Jason swallows again.

“Drew and I are getting married.”

Nico isn’t sure what to say. Really he has nothing _to_ say.

“That’s great!” He says, even though it so clearly isn’t.

Jason looks at him, momentarily shocked. “It is?”

Nico shrugs and pretends that the way the woman on the TV is filling a cream puff is the most interesting thing in the world.

“Sure. She’s nice, and you love her.” Jason doesn’t.

Jason nodded. “And you like her.” Nico doesn’t.

Nico turns to him and maybe if he smiles wide enough he’ll believe the words that come out of his mouth too. Which is why his face looks ready to split in half when he smiles and says, “Then you have every reason to marry her.”

He doesn’t.

Their friends take it well. The only people who know that Jason is not at all in love with Drew are Piper, Leo, and Thalia, and they all keep it to themselves.

Thalia is the first person after Nico he tells and he gets the sigh he expected.

“I don’t understand why you can’t just tell him that you love him.”

And boy does Jason actually have every reason for that. He went over them when he was eighteen and they still apply crazily enough.

“Because I can’t lose him.” He says.

Thalia sounds like she wants to deck him.

“You already are. I can’t believe you agreed to marry Drew freaking Tanaka. She was horrible. Still is.”

Jason makes a noise. “Hey! She’s not so bad!”

“Ringing endorsement, Jason, really.”

Jason derails the conversation and it ends with her promising to RSVP the wedding, much to her dismay.

Piper and Leo are next on his list. They just stare back at him in shock.

Piper leaves, slamming the door, but not before claiming, “You are volatile, Jason Grace, and I am even more disappointed that you decided to marry someone you don’t even love!”

She texts him the next day saying she’s sorry and she’ll help plan the wedding.

Leo takes it better. He wrings his hands. “What about Nico, man?”

Jason shrugged. “He’s happy for me.”

Leo settles back into the loveseat of Jason’s apartment and shakes his head in disapproval. “I doubt it. That guy is mad for you.”

Jason frowns. “It’s been almost ten years of knowing each other. If he liked me he would have said something.”

Leo sighs. “I don’t like this, Jason. I’m going to be honest with you.”

And maybe Jason doesn’t like it either, but it’s his only choice. He needs to convince himself that it’s the right one. So he frowns and everything feels heavy.

“Why can’t you just be happy for me?”

Leo looks at him and Jason forgets that Leo is no longer sixteen, no longer in love with a goddess who left him the moment she could find something better. Leo doesn’t hide behind a mask of humor anymore. Leo is older now, wiser, and maybe his eyes are darker, and he doesn’t crack jokes like he used to, but he’s honest about his feelings, and he knows himself now. Almost as well as he knows Jason.

“Why can’t you be happy for yourself?”

Jason doesn’t like to think that maybe Leo’s right. Because that would mean the end of the world, or at least Jason’s.

Drew tells her father and Jason is shown to family and some of them speak in Mandarin and some in French and Jason sits at a table and is forced to be something he’s not. Jason smiles with Drew and laughs at her jokes and her family loves him, but Jason just spends the entire time wondering if Nico’s mom would have liked him more.

Nico knows that maybe he’s kind of fucked.

He breaks up with Gavin on his birthday, tells him the reasons, and Gavin goes away. Gavin is not the first in a long line of Jason Grace replacements. Nico knows how unhealthy it is, knows that pining like this is now off limits. Jason is getting married and Nico will go to that wedding and support him.

“You’re not going to the wedding.” Drew tell him, four months after the engagement.

Nico feels horror curl up in his stomach in a way he hasn’t felt since the first time he shadow traveled and found a monster right in front of him.

“What?” He asks.

Drew sneers at him in the way Nico remembers she always did. She never changed, just took a different form and maybe Nico was wrong about Drew.

“I know that you’ve been head over heels for Jason since the day the war was over. Everyone knew it. But don’t think I’m going to let you take him from me.”

Nico frowns. “If you have to warn me off, maybe that’s a sign that he never really loved you in the first place.”

And okay, maybe Nico is feeling vindictive and a little defensive, but Drew Tanaka has just told him he will not be attending his best friend’s wedding and he’s allowed to be.

Jason feels something very strange in the pit of his stomach when Drew tells him that they are not inviting Nico.

“And why not? He’s my best friend.” He says.

Drew sighs and makes a sad look Jason knows he can’t resist. “Because he makes me uncomfortable. And don’t you want me to be happy on our big day?”

Jason wants her to be happy, because maybe then he’ll be happy. He swallows and nods, realizing that being Drew Tanaka’s husband will most likely result in him constantly making sacrifices he’s not ready for.

**  
**  


_**I am not the kind of guy** _

_**Who should be rudely barging in on a white veil occasion** _

_**But you are not the kind of boy** _

_**Who should be marrying the wrong girl** _

The big day.

The big kahuna.

Jason is terrified.

Nico is, well, he’s nervous too. He sneaks into the chapel with Piper, who swore up and down that she wanted him to ruin this wedding. Nico wanted to be here to see his best friend get married, not ruin his only chance for happiness.

**_I sneak in and see your friends_ **

**_And her snotty little family all dressed in pastel._ **

**_And she is yelling at a bridesmaid_ **

**_Somewhere back inside a room,_ **

**_Wearing a gown shaped like a pastry._ **

Nico is wandering around, trying to avoid getting kicked out when he sees Percy and Annabeth, Annabeth who is the size of a balloon.

Percy smiles at him. “Nico! Isn’t it great? Jason finally settling down.”

Percy has never been perceptive and even the years have not granted him that gift. He’s taller now, maybe taller than Nico remembers because he hasn’t seen Percy in over a year, but Annabeth is as sharp as ever.

“I’m sorry.”

And maybe Nico needs someone to know he’s always loved Jason Grace because after they seal their vows Nico will never tell a damn soul, literally. Nico won’t tell his father, who will mettle, and he won’t tell Hazel, who will worry, and he certainly won’t tell Reyna, who most likely already knows.

He frowns at her. “Thanks.”

She sighs and it sounds forlorn. “Maybe you can be happy, even with all this.”

Nico doubts it. “Thanks.” He says with a smile, because smiling means he can pretend he’s okay. Smiling didn’t get him through Tartarus, but it will get him through this.

He leaves them and ends up wandering down a hallways where he begins to hear screaming.

“No! No! No! No! You fucking idiots! I wanted the peach colors bouquet! How many times did I say this?!”

Nico wonders if Drew Tanaka fooled Jason into marrying her and she probably did. Because the way she’s yelling, Jason doesn’t like women like her. Drew fooled him and Nico feels terrible for falling for it too.

He quickly runs out the corridor when the door swings open to reveal Drew in a lacy and wide dress, looking overly extravagant.

She turns to her bridesmaids. “If you idiots can’t do something right, then all I’m asking is that you make sure Nico di Angelo stays as far away from this wedding as possible! I don’t even want to hear his name after this! Jason is mine. I’m going to make him mine just like I promised.”

Nico, who is hiding behind a wall of a dead end hallway, sighs. It makes what he’s going to do much easier. He just has to gather up the courage first.

_**This is surely not what you thought it would be** _

_**I lose myself in a daydream** _

_**Where I stand and say** _

_**“Don’t say ‘Yes’, run away now** _

_**I’ll meet you when you’re out of the church at the back door** _

_**Don’t wait or say a single vow** _

_**You need to hear me out** _

_**And they said, ‘Speak now.’”** _

__

Nico wanders over to a curtain that hides him from the congregation but it’s just across from Jason. Jason who is talking to three people at once, people circulating around him. Nico sees Piper, Leo, Hedge, Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, Reyna, Hazel, Frank, and so many of their friends, friends forged in fire and war. Nico wonders if any of them notice he’s not by Jason’s side. Nico always thought he’d be by Jason’s side.

He listens closer and finds he can hear Leo, who is looking for all the world like a charming bachelor, and he’s gotten Jason alone, near Nico’s hideaway to get a few minutes in before the ceremony starts.

“You could call him. Drew can’t be mad if you invite him last minute and you’re both already at the altar.”

Jason sighs. “No. He hasn’t answered my phone calls.”

Leo gives him a sympathetic look. “It’s not too late to change this. You could leave right now and no one would hold it against you. I’m sure Aphrodite wouldn’t even hold it against you.”

Jason just shakes his head. “We have to do this. It’s better this way.”

Nico wants to tell him that they’re better together, always have been. Jason is the reason Nico stayed at camp. Jason is the reason Nico eat more, worried less, cried less, slept more. Jason is the better way. Jason had always been Nico’s number one choice and now it’s time, after nearly ten years, that Nico put his money where his mouth is.

Nico dreams about what it’ll be like when Jason sees him, fighting for him. Nico is brave in battle, and against his father, and he’s brave in ways that Jason taught him to be. But this time Nico has to be brave because it’s for him. Nico has to want it, want to be brave in ways the 1940s hadn’t let him be, and in ways his relationship with his best friend hadn’t let him be either. Nico is finally going to be the kind of brave that lets him get what he wants.

Nico thinks about Jason Grace and possibilities when he hears the voices hush.

_**Fond gestures are exchanged** _

_**And the organ starts to play** _

_**A song that sounds like a death march** _

_**And I am hiding in the curtains** _

_**It seems that I was uninvited by your lovely bride-to-be** _

Jason goes back to the altar and Piper and Thalia give him a kiss on the cheek as Leo and he take their positions. Nico revels in the way Jason looks. He wonders if maybe someday, when all of this settles and goes over, if Jason will wear a suit like that and stare at the wide oak doors of chapel for Nico to emerge. Nico wonders if Jason will cry when he sees him and if he’ll hold his hand the entire time they change from a life separate to a life together. But that would be inaccurate, because from the moment in Croatia where Jason decided that Nico’s secret was one worth keeping, they’d always been together. Jason was a part of Nico in a way he didn’t understand, but he loved. Jason had been his friend when he needed one. Jason had been the person Nico looked forward to seeing when he was upset, and maybe Jason would never understand Tartarus or losing people in the worst way possible, but Jason tried. Jason who could have been friends with anyone, had chosen to be friends with Nico.

Nico listened to the first keys of the organ begin to play and he watched from his hiding spot as the progression started. People stood and watched Drew come down the aisle but Nico looked back at Jason. The keys are supposed to be joyous but all Nico can think about is how this will change everything. Jason and Drew will be together for the rest of their lives and Nico won’t be a part of that, because Drew knows that if Nico ever tried, Jason would leave her in a heartbeat. Because charmspeak and manipulation only go so far. He gave her a small smile, a thin lipped smile, and maybe to others that seemed good enough, but Nico knew better, knew that Jason didn’t want to be there either. Nico felt much better when he saw that face.

**  
**  


_**She floats down the aisle like a pageant queen** _

_**But I know you wish it was me,** _

_**You wish it was me,** _

_**Don’t you?** _

It occurs to Jason halfway through the procession that he’s made the biggest mistake of his life. He grows panicked, but quickly stifles it down the Roman way and smiles at Drew Tanaka like he loves her, like he wants to marry her.

It occurs to Nico halfway through the march that while Drew looks absolutely stunning, Jason is not smiling genuinely, and the way Drew feels threatened, well, Nico draws conclusions he’s all too eager to act on. Nico knows Jason smiles, knows the ones he gives when he’s sad, or hurting, and the ones he gives when Nico’s just told a funny joke. Jason smiles that brilliant thousand watt smile when he sees Nico and they both know, without words, or even being around one another, that this is a mistake, and Nico is polite enough that he’ll give it proper timing before he ruins Drew Tanaka’s decade old plan to exact revenge on Jason for his rejection so long ago.

_**Don’t say "Yes", run away now,** _

_**I’ll meet you when you’re out of the church at the back door.** _

_**Don’t wait or say a single vow,** _

_**Your time is running out,** _

_**And they said, "Speak now."** _

Nico was never a gifted speaker, but he steals himself from the nerves he’s feeling in his knees. Telling Jason Grace he’s loved him since the day the war ended, that’s going to be hard. Telling him in front of everyone he knows? Even harder.

But Jason Grace is worth it, the possibility for a lifetime of happiness is worth it. So Nico steals his nerves like he’s going into battle and moves away from the heavy velvet curtain.

_**I hear the preacher say, "Speak now or forever hold your peace."** _

_**There’s the silence, there’s my last chance.** _

_**I stand up with shaky hands, all eyes on me.** _

_**Horrified looks from everyone in the room** _

_**But I’m only looking at you.** _

Nico can hear the few lines the priest is saying before it’s his cue.

He walks to the closed oak doors and three mortal girls are immediately there to stop him.

“This is a private event.” One of them says.

Nico rolls his eyes. “Out of my way.”

Another girl sneers at him. “Drew says not to let you in.”

Nico glowers at all three of them.

“Listen, I need to get in there for some special business I definitely have to take care of. Now, maybe Drew didn’t tell you this about me, but I am not afraid to get rid of the people in my way.”

The girls gulp and move aside.

Nico slips into the chapel just as the priest says, “Speak now or forever hold your peace.”

Nico walks down the aisle as if he’s meant to be the bride and stops just a few feet away from the altar.This is it. There’s eyes following him, his friends and family are here to watch him stop a marriage and he’s pretty sure they never even expected it. And Drew’s family is on the other side of the chapel frowning, wondering why he’s walking up the aisle, but Nico is the only the who knows why. Nico is walking up that aisle towards the man he loves because Nico deserves it.

“I do.”

Jason turns to him quickly with that thousand watt smile Nico sees everywhere and Drew looks ready to burst like a pimple.

_**I am not the kind of guy** _

_**Who should be rudely barging in on a white veil occasion** _

_**But you are not the kind of boy** _

_**Who should be marrying the wrong girl** _

Jason and Leo and Piper, and Thalia, are all smiling when Nico takes his first few steps forward.

“I object.”

Jason lets out a breath and Drew glares at him.

“I told you to stay away.”

Nico turns to her. “I never said I would.”

She makes an indignant noise but Nico turns to Jason, those eyes impossibly bright and he looks like he’s crying, but Nico doesn’t mind it.

“You’re marrying the wrong person. We both know it.”

And maybe Annabeth, Piper, Reyna, Leo, and Thalia, and pretty much everyone they know, knows it, but Nico needs Jason to know.

**_Baby, I didn’t say my vows,_ **

**_So glad you were around_ **

**_When they said, "Speak now."_ **

Nico looks at Jason and Jason is as surprised as he is glad that Nico showed up. Jason hoped, and when they had gotten close to the end, Jason realized no one was coming. But Nico does come, because he’s never let down Jason even if Jason has maybe let him down enough times over the years to feel sorry about it.

Nico gives him a small smile, a secretive smile. Jason knows those well, because those are the smiles he has when he gets just too much ice cream, or a movie he shouldn’t have bought but did anyway. It’s the smile he wears when he’s indulging himself and giving himself what he finally wants.

Nico wants Jason. And boy is that news to Jason.

“You can’t marry her.”

Drew is speaking, maybe, but Jason can’t hear a word of it.

He nods. “I won’t. I never said my vows. I never will, unless they’re for you. All for you.”

Drew is shouting and whining, the priest is smiling and Drew’s family is outraged and Jason’s friends and family are cheering.

Nico pulls him away from the altar.

“Come on, let’s go.”

And Jason follows him, like he did in Croatia when they were swallowed by shadows, but this time it’s different. Jason is smiling and Nico is saving Jason from something he never wanted in the first place, and maybe Nico loves Jason exactly how Jason always wanted.

They’re running down the aisle away from a screaming Drew and as they pass Annabeth she holds out her hand for a high five. Nico slaps her hand with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starting 25 Days of Jasico for this fic so don't forget to submit your favourite christmas themed ideas! :D


	19. To Each His Own - Pt. 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> gay

Jason walked onto the golf green as his father was swinging his club and the balls flew into the expansive Pacific Ocean.

“You want to see me?” Jason could already feel something gathering in the pits of his stomach. This conversation happened every time he came home.

Jove continued to swing his club and began speaking. “Your mother found these eco-balls. They dissolve in water. I don't know how she creates these types of inventions. Anyway, she is a little upset.”

Jason watched his father look back at him momentarily. “Apparently, I wasn't the most gracious of hosts last night. It was a little bit of a shock to find out that you're getting married, especially when none of us even knew you were dating. And not to mention that you were attracted to men at all. The point is… I owe you an apology.”

Jason nodded curtly. “Accepted.”

Jason learned when he turned thirteen that arguing with a half-assed apology was futile. So, like when he was only a sixteen year old and dealing with the corporate business and publicity of his father’s business, he just gave a tight-lipped look and tried not to take everything personally.

His father stopped swinging his club momentarily to look at Jason. “There's something else. I've been going over my retirement plans recently, and it got me thinking. I've done a lot of things in my life. Practically built an empire with your mother from the ground up. It doesn't mean anything unless…”

His father trailed off and Jason rolled his eyes and took a step back. As usual he’d expected this to come sooner or later. He knew his father, and he knew that he was never one to waste time.

Jason curled his fists. “You have someone to leave it to. Yeah, we've already discussed this.”

Jove frowned and pressed forward. “I'd like to discuss it again. You have responsibilities here. I think I've been more than understanding about your goofing off in New York. I need you to quit playing around…”

Jason threw up his hands, as if they were as helpless at his side as his arguments were. “Here we go again. When are you going to start taking what I do seriously?”

Jove gave him a bland look of disapproval. Jason knew that face all too well. He knew that face from the time he’d told his father he would quit his job at the company, and when Jason ran away at eighteen to live in New York. Jove had never been able to understand that Jason was so tired of living under his shadow, tired of being told what to do.

“When you start acting seriously.”

Jason let out a breath, unable to tell his father about how serious he took his job, how much he loved it, even though he’d only made a dent in his initial plans. Jason could talk about how Percy was a great co-worker, and how he’d made so many friends while he was in New York and how Thalia talked to him once he left because she knew he’d never wanted that kind of life to begin with. And Jason wanted to throw the fact that Thalia left them because of this pressure in his father’s face, but he couldn’t. So he was equal parts upset because of his father’s unrealistic pressures and he was upset at Thalia for leaving him to this, to this yelling and this arguing and never seeing eye to eye on anything because how could he relate to a man who only saw him as the future CEO instead of his own son.

“I'm sorry. I feel sorry for you, Dad. I wish you had another son. I really do. One who wanted to stay here. One who wanted to take over the business. One who wanted to marry someone that you approve of, but it's not me.”

Jason looked at Jove to find he was still silent and Jason sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Now, it must seem strange to you, my life in New York… sitting in an office, reading books. But it makes me happy. You understand?”

Jove looked like he wanted to say more, but his eyes, which gave away all that hurt and disappointment, they said it all. “If that's what makes you happy, son, I got nothing to say.”

And maybe it was that fact that coming home always made him feel so small and so young, but Jason felt like after getting engaged to Nico freaking di Angelo and having to subject Piper to his horrible family going on about his engagement, he was allowed to be vindictive.

“Well, that's a first. You know what? Apology not accepted. Have fun out here.”

Gaea and Beryl looked at Nico before they entered the nondescript gray building.

Gaea smiled at him. “I hope you are ready for your big surprise because this is one of Sitka's greatest treasures.”

Beryl giggled. “Right?”

Nico shook his head, choosing to swallow down his fear. He hated surprises more than anything. “Oh, yes. Oh, yeah.”

Beryl smiled at Nico before opening the door. “Oh, Nico, you're gonna love it!”

And when the door swung open Nico looked to the lighted stage to find the young man from the party with blond hair and blue eyes dancing on stage.

Gaea sounded like she was laughing gleefully when she spoke to Nico, who was speechless. “Will's the only exotic dancer on the island. But we're lucky to have him.”

They took their seats, some strangers saying hi to Nico and downing glasses of beer.

Beryl smiled at him. “I hope you don’t mind us taking you here.”

Nico nodded slowly but Beryl was already cheering for Will, who was dancing to eighties hits that Nico wasn’t willing to relive through. “Work it, Will!”

“Wow.” Nico said. He couldn’t be sure if he said it in horrified awe or disgust.

Gaea cheered and called Will about the noise of the crowd. “Over here, Will! Over here. Over here, honey. Show him what he's gonna be missing.”

Will sauntered over in his spandex tights and suspenders with nothing to hide his well toned skin and maybe Nico found him mildly attractive but the awkwardness and horror of the ordeal heavily outweighed his attraction.

Will smiled at him and Nico could tell he was doing so sarcastically. “Come closer, handsome.”

Beryl and Gaea and all the women and men of the group cheered. “Yeah!”

Nico shook his head rapidly, avoiding Will’s attempt to pull him out of his chair. “Oh, no. Not necessary.”

Somehow the women and men of the group had pushed Nico out of his chair and onto the stage, where a single chair sat. He was pushed into the chair by Will but quickly protested. “It's a really nice gesture, but I really need to just..."

He sat down without another word when the group cheered louder and he sighed, hoping none of them noticed how embarrassed he was to be the center of such awkward sexual attention.

“Okay, pluck my eyes out. Okay. All right. Here we go.” He muttered under his breath as Will began to gyrate in the air next to him.

Gaea cackled. “Go, Nico! Go, Nico!”

Nico turned his attention to her instead of on Will giving him a striptease and lapdance. He turned and was surprised to find he was face to face with Will’s crotch in a speedo. “Hey... oh.”

Beryl laughed lightheartedly from her spot at the table by the stage. “Give it to him, Will! Go on, Will! Give it to him!”

Will pulled a contortionist act and lifted his leg about his head and gyrated against Nico. Nico’s eyes widened in horror. “That's a move I haven't seen.”

Beryl laughed louder. “Look at his face!”

Will winked at Nico as he sat in his lap and moved his hips to the music. “Guess who? For you. For you. For you.”

Nico wondered what had gone wrong that an attractive man was dancing in his lap and he wasn’t attracted to him. He thought perhaps it was the fact that this was his job, but mostly Nico just felt awkward and out of place.  

Will then turned around and waved his ass in Nico’s face.

Nico nearly gagged, but the group just laughed at his discomfort. Nico shook his head.

“I don't want to touch it. I don't wanna... No. Okay, okay.”

Gaea shouted from her seat gleefully. “Smack him!”

Nico turned to her in shock. “I'm sorry?”

Beryl shouted over the music and people cheering. “Smack his ass. Smack it. Okay. Smack him, Nico!”

Gaea grinned. “Nico, give it to him!”

Nico gingerly tapped Will’s ass and he laughed as he began to dance as soon as he stepped to the edge of the stage Nico moved as quickly as he could and hightailed out of the bar.

Nico took the crab that was in his drink and dumped it into the harbor. “Free. Be free.”

He stood there for a moment, looking out at the sea until he heard the door to the bar open again.

He turned to see that Piper was making her way over. “Hey! There you are. How are you holding up?”

He nodded and made a vague motion with his hands. “Oh, fine. Fine. Just working on my tan.”

Piper nodded sympathetically. “Yeah, the Graces can be a bit overwhelming at times.”

Nico coughed and stood straight, determined not to feel out of place in the suits tailored to make him feel like he belonged in them.

“Yes, yes.”

Piper looked back at the small town and then at the expanse of the seemingly endless west coast. “It's a little different than New York, huh?”

Her smile was curious, but cautious, as if she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Nico nodded.

“Little bit. Little bit. You ever been?”

Piper nodded and sighed. “No. That was always Jason's dream, not mine.”

Nico gave her a cautious look. “You guys were pretty serious, huh?”

Piper shrugged. “Well, I mean, we dated in high school and all through college, but we were kids.”

Nico nodded. “And you guys called it off because of…” He trailed off, leaving no question that he wished she would answer.

Piper sighed and leaned against the railing. With her distinctly native features and her hair braided on one side, with the wind in her hair, she looked beautiful. Nico could understand why Jason had loved her, what he couldn’t understand is why he had ever stopped.

“Well. . . The night before we graduated school. . . he proposed and said he wanted to elope and run away to New York with me.”

Nico was surprised that he wasn’t surprised at what Jason had done. “And. . . You said ‘no’.”

Piper sighed and nodded. “And I said ‘no’, yeah.”

She turned to him, eyes bright and passionate. “I've never been anywhere but here. This is home. But anyway,” she shook her head as if to shake off the thoughts of what could have been, “you're a lucky guy. He really is the best, which you obviously already know.”

Nico nodded immediately. “Oh, yep. Yes, very much so, yeah.”

Piper gave him a genuine smile and Nico felt something akin to dread in the pit of his stomach for lying to someone who so obviously loved Jason. “Well, cheers to you guys.”

Nico smiled back. “Thank you.”

When they got to the dock of the house (see: mansion) Beryl and Gaea were chatting happily, but they stopped as soon as they saw Jason, wearing only his undershirt, chopping away at what looked like a boat.

Gaea frowned. “Oh, no. Jason!”

He made no move to acknowledge them, although none of them realized he had headphones in.

Beryl called out to him, her bright blue eyes now stormy. “Jason, honey, is everything OK?”

Nico watched him chopped and hack away at the wood of what looked like a canoe. “What... What's he doing?”

Beryl sighed. “Something's up. It's best to leave him alone.”

Gaea sighed. “Come on, honey.”

When Beryl and Nico walked into the house She marched up to where Jove was watching the news and immediately turned it off.

Jove frowned. “What are you doing? I'm watching that.”

Beryl ignored his question. “Why is Jason out there hollowing out that old stupid canoe again?”

Jove frowned. “Well, maybe he's planning to escape. What?”

Beryl sighed and looked at him angrily. “I am so tired.”

Nico knew he shouldn’t be watching this. He motioned to the stairs before telling Beryl, “Think I'm gonna go upstairs, take a shower, wash off Will's coconut body oil.”

Beryl turned to him and gave him a strained smile. “Sure.”

For some strange reason Nico felt inclined to comfort her in anyway he could, so he simply said, “I had a great day today. Thank you.”

Nico walked out of sight and tried to listen to their conversation.

Beryl started angrily. “What did you do?”

Jove spoke calmly, in a voice Nico remembered his father used to speak with. “I didn't do anything, I mean. . . I just had a frank conversation with him about his future.”

Beryl threw up her hands helplessly. “Well, yeah. That's a good idea. That's a good idea, Jo, because he will never come back home now.”

“He is my son. I only get to see him every three years because of you.” Her voice cracked and Nico ached to hug her and rub circles into her palms like his mother had done to him once upon a time.

Beryl continued on angrily. “Because of you. I've had enough. You are gonna be supportive of him marrying Nico, and that is that. You know, if we're not careful, we are gonna end up in this great big house, just you and me alone, you and me and everything that we're angry about, and God forbid that they should have a grandchild that we never get to see.” The thought made Nico’s stomach curl uncomfortably at the thought of Jason’s parents hoping they’d have a baby, when all they’d get was a divorce.

Beryl finished her rant. “You are going to fix this, Jo. I mean it. Fix it now.”

Nico made his way quickly up the stairs, trying to push their words out of his mind. He got into the shower and when he emerged his skin felt much better, and so did his mind. It felt clearer. He reached for the rod above the toilet to find there were no towels.

He looked around the bathroom in mild panic. “Where's a towel?”

He looked into the cabinets and found a small towel. “This is all they have for a towel? It's ridiculous. I can't get dry.”

He leaned out of the door and called out. “Hello.”

He closed the door again, just as he did so Jason made his way inside the room and into the balcony.

Nico opened the door and called again. “Hello?”

He opened the door, trying to get across the room in a rush, just as he did Kevin the dog rushed into the room and began to bark at him. He frowned, backing away from the dog. “No, no, no, no, no. Just... I'm sorry. Let me just. . . let me just get a towel. Just... look. You need to just... I'm sorry. Okay, I'm sorry for feeding you to the eagle. I'm sorry.”

Kevin continued barking at him. he sighed. “Go away. Go away. Go, go. Just let me get a towel. Go, go, go... Hold on.”

He rushed into the bathroom and plugged in the hair dryer, wondering if it might work to scare off Kevin. He blew it in Kevin’s face and for a moment the dog flinched. “Yeah. Huh? How you like that? Huh? Take it, take it. That's right. That's what I'm talking about. You like that?”

The dog laid down and began to revel in the warm air and Nico frowned, confused. “You like it.”

He got a brilliant idea and lured the dog onto the little mat that belonged in the bathroom. As he was doing so, Jason was stripping down on the private patio, getting ready for a shower. “Come here. Come to me. That's right. Get on the carpet.That's a good boy. Yes! That's good, boy!”

And he pulled it quickly into the bathroom and shut the door, not accounting for the fact that when he spun around he crashed right into Jason, who was equally naked. A mixture of horror and dread filled Nico.

Jason’s eyes widened. “What the?”

Nico stalled out of shock. “Oh! Why are you naked?”

Jason noticed in horror that Nico was naked only for a towel. “Oh, my God! Why are you wet?”

Nico stared at him in horror as he leaped up. “Oh, my God. Don't look at me.”

Jason looked at him anyway, as he hurried over to the towel on the bed. He stared at the space where Nico had been sprawled across him. “I don't understand. Why are you wet?”

Nico frowned, desperately trying to cover up the scars on his legs. “Why are you naked? Don't look at me.”

Nico looked up to find that Jason hadn’t covered up and Nico could in fact see his penis. “Oh, God! You're showing everything. Cover it up, for the love of God!”

When he finally did Nico looked at him in shock. “Explain yourself please.”

Jason smirked at him sarcastically. “Explain myself?”

Nico nodded rapidly. “Yes, explain yourself.”

Jason motioned to the doors that led out to the private balcony. “I was outside.”

Nico blanched. :Really? You didn't hear me?”

Jason motioned to his headphones. “I was listening. . . Then you just, jumped me out of nowhere? What's that?”

Nico frowned. “I didn't mean to jump you. Your dog was attacking me, and I had to run, and I ran into you.”

Jason shook his head, smiling. “What is it with you and this dog?”

Nico’s frowned deepened, and Jason couldn’t help but be amused by his sour mood. “Just, you know, just... go. Go take a shower. You stink.”

Jason shook his head and walked over to the bathroom. “Fine. Nice tattoo, by the way.”

Nico’s face molded into a look of horror and embarrassment. “What?”

Jason opened the door to find Kevin barking wildly. Nico inclined towards the dog. “You see that?”

Kevin yipped and ran past Jason. Jason deadpanned. “Barely made it out with my life there. See the size of the teeth on that thing?”

Talking about their naked bodies colliding with each other didn’t happen until later that night as they lay in bed. Nico in the bed, and Jason on the floor.

Jason spoke first. “So. . .So naked.”

Nico cleared his throat. “Can we not talk about that, please?”

Jason shrugged. “Just sayin'.”

Nico coughed and continued. “So, what's the deal with you and your father?”

Jason had expected the question, but he still froze at the sound of Nico’s genuine interest. “I'm sorry. That question is not in the binder.”

Nico raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? Well, I thought you were the one that said we needed to learn all this…”

Jason shook his head. “Not about that, I didn't.”

Nico pressed. “But if the guy asks. . .”

“Not about that, Nico. Good night.” He said in a voice that clearly told Nico to drop it. And he did.

They lay there for a while not saying anything, until Nico spoke first.

“I like the Psychic Network.”

Jason furrowed his brow. “What?”

Nico sighed. “Not in the ‘ha-ha, isn't that funny, he likes that trash’ kind of way. I actually quite enjoy it. I took disco lessons in the sixth grade, my father made me. My first concert was Blink-182 and My Chemical Romance. I think Brian Dennehy is sexy.”

Nico wasn’t sure what had prompted his confessions but he continued before he lost his nerves. “Don't like flowers in the house, 'cause they remind me of funerals and my late stepmother. Never played a video game. I read Wuthering Heights every Christmas. It's my favourite book. My half-sister and her husband live in Canada and I stopped talking to them three years ago, thought it was best for her. Haven't slept with a man in over a year and a half. And. . . I went to the bathroom and cried a bit after Bryce called me a poisonous fuck.”

“And the bird tattoo?” Jason asked, quietly.

Nico swallowed, figuring he’d tell someone the truth if he never told anyone else. “They're swallows. Got them when I was 16. . . after my parents died in a car crash. Stupid. I'm sure there's many, many other things, but that's all I can come up with right now.”

There was a long silence and Nico swallowed nervously. “You there?”

Jason spoke softly, afraid to break the fragile sense of comfortability. “I'm here. Just processing. You really haven't slept with anyone in 18 months?”

Nico threw his hands up. “Oh, my God. Out of all that, that's all you got?”

Jason shrugged. “That's a long time.”

Nico frowned. “Yeah, well, I've been a little busy.”

Jason nodded. “Yeah. . . Who's. . . Blink-182 and My Chemical Romance?”

Nico felt himself blush and was promptly glad that Jason couldn’t see it from his position on the floor. “You know,” he sang a few verses from My Chemical Romance’s Welcome To The Black Parade.

Jason chuckled. “No. They were good.”

Nico sighed. “What?”

Jason let out a laugh. “Nothing. I know who they are. I just wanted to hear you sing it.”

They both let out a small but happy laugh and after another bout of silence Jason spoke up.

“What’s your half-sister’s name?”

Nico sighed. “Hazel. Hazel Levesque.”

Jason looked up at the ceiling, remembering Thalia. “Do you miss her?”

Nico wondered if he should answer honestly, lay that card on the table, when he didn’t have very many left. He let out a breath.

“Like a man gasping for air.”

Jason knew that feeling well. He hadn’t seen Thalia since she’d run out on them when he was sixteen. He was twenty six now. He learned to be okay with that feeling of missing her, not knowing if she was okay. It felt strange to find that Jason had something in common with Nico.

“I have a sister. Thalia.”

Nico was shocked by that. “Is she. . . Is she dead?”

Jason sighed. “I wouldn’t know. She ran away when I was sixteen.”

Nico nodded. “I could never handle it if Hazel had done the same.”

“Why did you leave her?”

Nico’s grip on the sheets tightened. “That’s private.”

Jason nodded, feeling the tense air that always surrounded Nico. Jason wondered how tired Nico was of building walls he didn’t need. “Fair enough.”

Nico let go of the sheets and sighed. “I’m sorry. It’s just. . . We wanted different things. Hazel wanted domesticity and a quiet life. I wanted to be editor in chief of a book company. Live in the city my parents grew up in. She wanted me to stay and help her build a family with her husband.”

Jason frowned. “Why stop talking with her though?”

Nico felt the tears well in his eyes as he lay there in the bed and he cleared his throat before he spoke, knowing his voice would crack.

“It hurt too much.”

Jason felt something akin to sympathy when he spoke. “So you’ve been alone all this time?”

Nico nodded, even if Jason couldn’t see it. “Of course. It’s easier that way. Beside, I have a micromanaging problem a mile wide.”

Jason snorted. “I know. Doesn’t mean people don’t want you, though.”

Nico closed his eyes. “If you find those men, let me know.”

There was silence and as Nico drifted a bit Jason spoke again.

“Nico?”

“Yes?”

Jason gulped back his nervousness. “Don't take this the wrong way.”

Nico nodded. “Okay.”

Jason willed himself to pull through with what he was thinking. “You are a very,  
very handsome and attractive man.”

Nico wasn’t sure exactly what to say to that. He’d never been told that before. He settled for closing his eyes and letting sleep take him. Jason lay awake for a few minutes wondering what in the hell had come over him that he felt the need to tell his boss he was attractive.

Nico came to with a groggy sense of morning. He sat up and noticed the sun blaring in through the windows. “Oh, God.”

He heard a knock as he sat up.

“Room service. Breakfast for the happy couple.” Beryl called happily.

Nico cursed and leaned over the bed. “Jason. Jason! Jason, your mother's at the door.  
Get up! Get up here!” He whispered to Jason, who groggily got up.

“Just a second!” Nico called in a sweet voice.

Maybe it was just the sleep adeled brain of his, but he thought that Nico sounded much more sincere. Jason wasn’t expecting to feel that way at all. He got up and threw the blankets onto the bed as they both began to position themselves.

Nico looked for a blanket to cover them with. “Not the baby blanket. Not the baby blanket. Get it off, get it off, get it off.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Okay, all right. Wait a second. Hold on.”

Nico looked at him impatiently. “What? What?”

Jason just laughed. “Nothing. Okay, what do we do?”

Nico pulled him a bit closer and turned so his back was to Jason’s chest. “Just spoon me, spoon me…”

Nico’s eyes widened and he turned to Jason in shock. “Oh, my God! What is that? Is that morning wood?”

Jason shrugged. “I'm sorry. It's morning.”

Beryl called from outside the door. “Are you OK?”

“Come on in. Everything's fine.” Nico called.

Beryl burst through the door with Gammy right behind her. They had a tray of breakfast, with cinnamon rolls and coffee.

“Oh, wow.” Nico said.

Jason smiled that them. “Smells good.”

Gammy offered them the tray. “Cinnamon rolls.”

Nico seemed more restrained than Jason had seen him before when he responded. “Oh, you shouldn't have gone to that trouble.”

Beryl waved him off. “Oh, you're family now. It's no trouble.”

Jove walked in just then. “Hello, you have room for one more?”

That immediately set Jason on edge. “Wow. Could we not do the Brady family meeting right now? We just got up if you don't mind.”

Jove nodded. “Yes. Your mother and I have come up with a proposition and I happen to think it's a terrific idea. . .”

Beryl interrupted him excitedly. “We want you to get married here tomorrow!”

Jason looked at them, panic rising in his throat. “Tomorrow.” He said faintly.

Nico looked up at them in shock. “What? What? What? No.”

Beryl smiled sheepishly at them. “Well, you're gonna get married anyway, so why don't you get married here where we can be all together, and that way Grandma Annie can be a part of it.”

Nico hated the way they all stared at him and Jason with eager approval. “Oh. Oh, we're... No.”

Jason shook his head. “No, it's Gammy's birthday tomorrow. Big day for her. We don't want to ruin it. That's, you know…” He trailed off.

Gaea threw up her hands in frustration. “I've had 89 birthday parties, I don't need another one.”

Jason sighed and looked at her sadly. “Oh, Gammy.”

She continued. “It would be a dream come true for me to see my one grandchild's wedding. A dream come true! So you'll do it? Before I'm dead?”

Nico looked at Jason and they relented.

“Okay. Okay.” Jason said. “

“Okay.” Nico said.

Beryl squealed and smiled that them. “Okay, we will do everything. And you can get married like we did, in the barn. It's a Grace family tradition.”

Nico felt vaguely horrified. “Oh, wow!”

Beryl grinned at him. “Yup.”

Nico made his tone sound enthusiastic but Jason knew better. “Wow! I've always wanted to get married in a... in a barn.”

Jason smiled at them. “I have.”

Gammy grinned at them. “It's a sign. A sign from the universe that you're meant to be together. We must give thanks, I tell you.”

She dragged Beryl away. “Come, come. We must give thanks.”

Beryl lingered a bit longer. “Okay, I know I should leave you alone now. But we're just so excited! I know you're excited, too.”

Jason smiled at her. “Yeah! Go. Go.”

She took Jove’s hand and they closed the door behind them.

Jason immediately went into a panic. “Oh, my God.When my mom finds out that this whole thing is a sham she's gonna... she's gonna be crushed, and my grandmother's gonna die.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Your mom's not gonna find out.”

Jason seemed to not have heard him at all. “My father. What's with that?The wedding thing? Where'd that come from?”

Nico sighed. “She probably got him worked up into it. It's fine. She's not gonna find out. They're not going to find out.”

Jason just realized how profound the effect would be on his family if they were to ever find out that Jason had married his boss based on a lie. his parents would never forgive him and Gaea, oh she’d be so disappointed. Jason would never be able to fix what was done by him doing this. “God. Nico!”

Nico began to impulsively stroke Jason’s neck, trying to calm him. “Jason, they're not gonna find out, okay? Just relax.It's gonna be okay. It's not like we're gonna be married forever. We'll be happily divorced before you know it. It will be fine. It will be fine.”

Jason would like for no one to analyze Nico’s profound effect on Jason’s heart rate.

Nico stopped once he noticed Jason seemed calmer. “You OK?”

Jason nodded. “Yeah. Get us some coffee, please.”

Nico nodded and went to get the coffee mugs from the tray that had been set down on a table at the foot of the bed.

“So, would you like a cinnamon soy latte?” Nico asked with a smirk.

Jason ignored his question, seemingly far away again. “You're right, you know. . . Get a quickie divorce, we'll be fine.”

“Everything is going to be great.” Nico said resolutely.

And then in a more lighter tone. “But this little mister better learn how to cook, so he can take care of his husband. Keep my man happy. I don't want him leaving me for another woman.”

He said it as he passed over the cup.

Jason scoffed. “Come on. Haven't left you yet, Nico.”

And for a moment Nico’s grip tightened. His eyes momentarily forgot to focus and he tried not to think of how his sister had told him that right before she had died. How she had left him forever.

“I got it. Let go.” Jason said, pulling Nico from his reverie.

Jason looked at him where he stood momentarily frozen. “You all right?”

Nico nodded rapidly before he felt normal again. “Yeah. . . You know what? I'm gonna go.”

Jason frowned. “Where?”

Nico shrugged. “Out.”

And he was out of the door faster than he’d ever been.

Nico began taking a walk in the woods when he started thinking about Jason and how sometimes when Jason laughed Nico couldn’t help but love the sound, or how he constantly wanted to push of Jason’s glasses or kiss him like they had that day of the accidental engagement party. Nico didn’t even like him, didn’t like him because he knew what people said about him when he wasn’t looking. He knew about the office chatroom and he knew about how Jason hated him because Nico was cold and bitter because it was easier to be than to open up to people. People who left, like Bianca, and Maria, and his father. Nico knew better than to form feelings that wouldn’t last the year.

Nico shook his head as he continued walking. “Okay, you just... Just have to focus, Nico. Just focus. This is a business deal. This is just a business deal. Everything's gonna be just fine.”

He repeated it like a mantra in his head. Just as he was repeating it a fourth time he heard music and chanting coming from somewhere off the trail. He followed the noise.

“What is that?” He said, as the music was only a few feet away.

He found that Gaea was donning authentic  headdress and what looked like a cape made of animal skins.

She smiled at him and raised her hands above her head. “Come to me, Nico of New York. It is I, Grandma Annie. I see you are a curious one. Come. See how I give thanks to Mother Earth. For she is my namesake.”

Nico looked around at the burning fire and her cloak of animal skin and shook his head rapidly.

“You know, actually, I'm not that curious. I'll just. . .” He trailed off as he began to walk back to the path.

Gaea grabbed him and brought him into her draw circle in the dirt. “Look around you. Mother Earth has provided all this just as she brought you and Jason together to be joined. We must give thanks and ask that your loins be abundantly fertile, or in this case, that you receive a child. Come. Dance with me in celebration.”

Nico backed away and went back to the edge of the clearing. “You know, can I, can I just thank her from here?”

Gaea threw something flammable into the fire and it seemed to grow in an instant.

“I insist!” She said dramatically through the flames of the fire.

Nico walked forward quickly and relented. “Okay, okay, okay. I will come down and dance with you.”

Gaea smiled and began to move her foot as she danced around the fire. “Follow and learn. Come on, Nico! Feel the rhythm of the drums. Now you.”

Nico looked at her in surprise. “Me what?”

Gaea smiled at him.

“Chant.”

“Chant what?” He deadpanned.

Gaea smiled and began to dance again as she chanted. “Whatever comes to you. It is the way.”

Nico shifted uncomfortably. “But I don't know any chants.”

Gaea seemed to ignore him in his protests. “To the trees. Use your vowels. Yes. Chant.”

Nico made what, to him, sounded like nonsensical garble.

Gaea just smiled at him in pride. “Chant, chant. Yes! Yes!”

Nico danced slightly and spoke softly. “To the trees.”

Gaea threw her hands up again. “To the universe!”

Nico looked at her with a look of peculiarity and continued. “The universe. Universe. To the crazy lady.”

He continued chanting and for some reason, a song began to form in his head.

“To the window, the window. To the wall, to the wall. To the sweat drip down my balls. To all you bitches…” He said under his breath.

Gaea cheered him on. “Louder!”

In a louder voice Nico sung. “To the window, to the window. To the walls, to the walls. To the sweat drip down my balls. Now all you bitches crawl.”

Gaea laughed as they began to sing louder. Nico found that he actually enjoyed himself as he let out a laugh and began to sing again.

“All skeet, skeet, mother. All skeet, skeet, goddamn. To the window to the window. To the wall to the wall. To the sweat drip down my balls. To all you bitches crawl. All skeet, skeet, mother. All skeet, skeet goddamn. To the window to the window. To the wall to the wall. To the sweat drip down my. All you bitches go.”

Nico looked at Gaea. “Gammy! Let's take it to the bridge!”

She laughed as he began to dance more emphatically. “Let me see you get low. You scared, you scared. Drop your ass to the flo'. You scared, you scared. Let me see you get low. You scared, you scared.”

Just as he was singing Jason was wandering down the path in search of Nico. He figured Nico would like to go with him when he got his phone from the general store in town. He heard a bit of music coming from off the path and followed, knowing that his grandmother most likely was with Nico. Jason wandered off the path and through the brush he saw Nico dancing with Gammy and he almost let out a laugh. Then he realized neither of them had noticed him and he watched for a few seconds, nearly letting out a hearty laugh at the way Nico was dancing beside his grandmother.

Nico continued dancing with Gaea. “Now stop, woo. Now wiggle it. Now stop, woo. Jiggle it, just jiggle it.”

Jason stepped out from the brush and smirked at Nico. “Whatcha doing?”

Nico stopped immediately. His eyes widened and he stammered.

“You know, your Gammy wanted me to, you know, chant. Chant from the heart.”

Jason snorted. “Balls? That's what came to your heart?”

Nico shuffled and huffed. “You know, it went with the beat.”

Jason nodded, smirking the entire time and changed the subject for not only Nico, but his own well-being. “Your phone arrived. I'm gonna go into town. Wanna come?”

Nico nodded his head. “Oh, yes, I want to go. I want to go. Oh, hold on.”

He turned to Gaea, for some reason he sought her approval. “Is it OK if I go with him?”

Gaea smiled at him. “Whatever you do is what shall be.”

Nico looked at her. “But you're OK if I go?”

Gaea waved him off. “Fine. Go on.”

Nico gave her a small smile and waved as he followed to where Jason waited for him by the edge of the clearing. “Bye, Gammy.”

He walked past Jason, determined not to let his embarrassment show.

Jason let out a laugh. “You're a freak!”

Nico didn’t even have the energy to glower, so he simply said, “Shut up.”

Jason and Nico walked into the store. He smiled at Will, who was behind the counter. “Hey, buddy.”

Will grinned. “Jason, hey!”

Jason went over to him, Nico trailing behind him. “You got that phone I ordered?”

Will nodded. “Yes, it came in. How are you?”

“Great. You?” Jason asked as he wandered around the far end of the store.

Will turned eyes to Nico who stayed by the counter. “Good. Hey, hi. Remember me?”

Nico nodded, feeling slightly shifty. “Yes, yes. Wonderful.”

Will grinned at him and with a tan and the bright blond hair and blue eyes he looked exactly how Nico remembered him. Unfortunately Nico remembered him with coconut body oil slathered over his torso and a mild regret.

Will winked at him. “Wonderful. Yes, you are.”

He handed the phone over and made his way to stock some things in boxes by the entrance.

Jason walked over, looking at Will who was still watching Nico.

He chuckled. “Think you made quite an impression on Will.”

Nico nodded and glared at him. “I think the part where I burst into tears just really brought us together.”

Jason nodded. “Yeah. Oh, guess what.”

“What?”

Jason waved Pringles in his face. “Fun fact about Andrew number 11: I like Pringles. They're delicious. All Hostess products. Coke, never Pepsi, and beef jerky.”

Nico smirked. “What, are you, like, 13?”

He turned on his phone and from the way his eyes bugged out Jason knew it was a mess. “Oh, my God. I have 37 messages. Shit. I need a computer. Is there, is there a computer in this godforsaken town?”

Jason nodded and led him out to the cafe across the road. The computer looked like it still ran on AOL dial-up. Jason handed Nico a roll of dimes.

“OK. So when it runs out, it gives you a warning. Just put in more dimes.”

Nico looked at him in shock and Jason huffed. “What?”

Nico deadpanned. “You're kidding. Dimes?”

Jason looked to see Piper was sitting on a bench by the harbor. He nodded. “I'll be outside. Yell if you need me. You'll be fine.”

He rushed out of the door and went over to Piper.

“Piper!”

She turned to him and smiled Jason. “Jason. Hi.”

He sat beside her. “Hey, how are you?”

She looked out at the harbor and the sun bright in the middle of the sky. “I’m great, just wanted to take a walk.”

Jason smiled at her. “I remember how much you loved taking walks.”

She nodded and looked down.

They sat in silence for a moment.

“So. . .” Jason said. It was the first time in all the years he’d known her that he had a difficult time talking.

Piper looked at him. “Jason, what are you doing?”

He sighed and looked at her. “I. . . I miss you, Pipes.”

She nodded. “No, you don’t get to do this.”

He turned to face her. “But I do. I missed you, and now that I’m established in New York and with a job I though maybe-”

She sighed. “You thought what? That I’d follow you? Jason, we talked about this, I belong here. Grandpa Tom can’t take care of the farm without me. And besides, you have Nico.”

He didn’t say anything but Piper just continued. Really, he knew why it would never work. Because Jason was a different person, had always been the one to follow his dreams with calculated measure and sure Piper had dreams but they were different, smaller, but more important to her in ways Jason couldn’t understand. It was the reason why she had let him leave. Because her dreams, and his, they were different and she wouldn’t stop following hers, and neither would he.

Jason blanched.

“Nico.” He said faintly.

Piper nodded. “Yeah, you know, your fiancee.”

“He’s nice, too. He’s sweet, and not to mention I can tell how much he loves you.”

Jason shook his head. “I don’t know about that.”

Piper gave him a small smile. “You should see the way he looks at you.”

Jason stayed silent for a long time after that.

After a while of silence Piper got up and smiled down at him.

“You’ll be fine. You’ll be great. And Nico really loves you, don’t forget that.”

Nico walked along with Jason as they made their way back to the pier.

“So, it was nice to see Piper, huh?”

Jason still seemed to be in shock about whatever they had talked about. “Yeah.”

Nico spared a glance at him. “She looked really pretty today.”

Jason thought about the windswept curls and colorful feathers in her hair, and the way her face looked soft, but hardset and strong. “Yeah, she did.”

“Must be nice to see each other again and just catch up.” Nico tried to help him, make that crease in his forehead smooth out, but it just got deeper.

“It's definitely good to see her. It's. . . definitely, yeah. It's been a long time.” He sighed.

Gaea and Beryl were walking towards them as they walked in silence. “Oh, there they are. There they are. Nico!”

Beryl smiled at them. “We need Nico. Afraid we're going to have to steal you away.”

Nico shook his head rapidly, remembering the last time they had taken him somewhere in surprise. “No, no, no, no. I'm just gonna keep. . .”

Gaea smiled at him. “No, not to worry. No strippers, no chanting in the woods. Promise.”

Nico relaxed at her promise. “Oh, well. . .”

Jason followed after them and Beryl stopped him. “But not you. It's business stuff. You'd hate it.”

Jason frowned. “But. . .”

They were already pulling Nico away and Jason resigned himself to just sit by the boat.

Gaea smiled as she waited for Nico to come out of the dressing room. “I can't believe this is happening.”

Nico stepped out and turned around slowly for Beryl and Gaea to see.

He stepped up to the mirror, somehow, with all the suits he’d worn and traded and bought, this one felt more personal, more important, than any of the ones he had ever worn before.

Gaea smiled softly at him and put her arm around his shoulder. “My mother made this tux by hand. In this very shop. In 1929. It's funny how things come back in style.”

Nico felt his voice constrict and cleared it before he spoke. “Just... just finishing up the buttons.”

Beryl smiled at him. “Yeah, and don't worry about the fit because Annie is the best tailor in southeast Alaska.”

Gaea tightened the fit by pinching the clothe. “Maybe a tad loose in certain  
areas, but otherwise. . .”

She continued to pinch the clothe. “Now where is that fine form, you’re so small.”

She fixed it and turned him around in front of the mirror. “There, let's see.”

As he looked himself over in the mirror Beryl spoke shyly. “I was thinking, if you'd like, maybe we could head down your way for the holidays this year.”

Nico;s throat closed up, but he forced himself to speak over the onslaught of emotions. “Oh, that would. . . that would be nice. That'd be nice. Or maybe, we could come to you, too.”

Beryl had tears her eyes and nodded quickly. “Well, that would be lovely. I would like that very much.”

She threw her arms around Nico and for a moment he did nothing but stand there in shock, before his wound his arms lightly around her.

Gaea scoffed. “Oh, Beryl, for God's sake. We've got work to do.”

Beryl withdrew from him and Nico felt that phantom warmth like his parents left when he was sixteen. “I know. I'm sorry.”

Gaea smiled sympathetically at her. “Go make yourself a cup of tea. I'll finish this. Go.”

She nodded and Gaea turned to Nico. “Now, let's make this absolute perfection. Now, just one special touch and you're ready.”

She pulled out a necklace with a shining robin’s egg jade in the middle. She shrugged. “It's been in the family for more than 150 years. And I know that it’s not the most manly thing.”

Nico looked at it in awe. “Gaea, it's beautiful, but I don't really think. . .”

Gaea smiled. “I'm not finished.”

“Oh, sorry.”

Gaea looked at him through the mirror and put the necklace on Nico’s neck.

“My great-grandfather gave it to my great-grandmother when they got married. They were quite a scandal,” she smirked at him, “you must know what I mean. He was Russian and she was Tlingit, a type of Native American, and back then you had to get approval from every member of the tribe before you got married. Almost broke them up.”

Nico looked at her. “Well... how did they stay together then?”

Gaea got a glint in her eye. “She was a lot like you. Tough. Wouldn't take ‘no’ for an answer. She was good for him. I want you to have it.”

Nico’s heart stopped and he shook his head rapidly. “I can't. Can't take this.”

Gaea waved him off. “I don't want to hear it. Grandmothers love to give their stuff to their grandchildren. It makes us feel like we'll still be part of your lives even after we're gone. Take it.”

He felt tears well in his eyes and Gaea gave him a concerned look. “Are... are you all right, dear?”

Nico nodded, and suddenly he was overwhelmed with an urge to tell her the truth. That this was a lie, that those words she had told him, they meant so little when he was lying to her. “I. . . I just. . . I just wanted to. . .make sure there was enough time to get all the sewing done.”

Gaea smiled at him and he felt even worse for not having the courage to tell her, because he wanted this too much. He wanted for her to love him and for them to visit during the holidays and Nico wanted so many things he missed out on because family had been taken from him and the family he did have, he couldn’t face. He couldn’t face his sister because it was too hard, but pretending that Jason’s family was his own was so much easier.

“Don't you worry about that. You're gonna be beautiful. Now let's get you out of those pins.

He nodded. “Okay.”

Nico hurried down the pier and whizzed right past Jason and into the boat.

“This is untied. Hop on in.”

Nico started the boat and Jason turned to him in surprise. “What... Mind telling me what the hell's wrong?”

Nico felt the emotions spilling over, unable to hold them back the way he had done for more than ten years.

“I needed to get away from everybody.” He said, over the sound of the engine and the rapid splashing of the water.

Jason looked at him, could see his frantic eyes and the tears the gathered at the edges and his white knuckles gripping the wheel like a lifeline.

“What's wrong?”

Nico shook his head as if to shake Jason’s words off of him. “Nothing! Just stop talking, please!”

Jason watched at Nico continued to drive the boat at rapid speed. “Would you mind telling me what's happening now?”

Nico stared straight ahead, silent.

Jason began to get more worried. “Nico.”

Nothing.

“Nico!” He urged.

“I forgot, okay?” Nico shouted, tears streaming down his face.

Jason looked at him with worried written all over his face. “You forgot what?”

Nico gripped the wheel tighter and shouted over the engine. “I forgot what it was like to have a family!”

Jason stood still in shock, but Nico kept his words coming, unable to hide it anymore, that hurt, that loneliness, that need for someone to hug him at night. But all he got was social workers and running away from Foster home after Foster home.

“I've been on my own since I was sixteen and I forgot what it felt like to have people love you and make you breakfast and say, ‘Hey! We'd love to come down for the holidays.’ And I say, ‘Well, why don't we come up and see you instead?’ And give you necklaces! And you have all that here, and you have Piper, and I'm just screwing it up!”

Jason thought to reflexively add, “You're not screwing it up! I agreed to this! You were there, remember?”

Nico ignored him, he went on. “Your family loves you. Do you know that?”

Jason nodded. “I know that! Yes!”

Nico spared a glance at him. “You're willing to put them through this?”

Jason sighed. “They're not gonna find out!”

Nico tried desperately to find any way out of this. “How do you know?”

“Because you said so yourself.” Jason said simply. As if it was that easy, as if everything could be solved because Nico said it would.

Nico began to hyperventilate. “But what if your mother… Oh, my God, if your mother found out...Oh, my God! What if Gammy finds out?”

He let go of the wheel to clutch his head in panic and Jason hurried to grab the wheel.

“The boat is moving!” He shouted.

Nico shook his head and proceeded to panic, the dread swallowing him whole. “If Gammy finds out, she's gonna have a heart attack!”

“It's gonna be fine!” Jason said, trying to placate him.

Nico didn’t hear a word, his dread falling to the pit of his stomach. Reminding him why he had been alone all this time. “She's gonna have a heart attack!”

Jason huffed in frustration. “Hold on!”

And he turned the boat sharply. Nico felt out in shock, his mouth open and soon he was swallowing salt water and he felt so cold. Cold. Heavy. He was drowning, he couldn’t swim. He flailed helplessly, but much like every time in his life where he tried to break the surface, it just swallowed him whole. He kept flailing until eventually he break the surface and swallowed mouthfuls of air.

Jason hadn’t noticed and had continued driving the boat. “I don't think that hijacking a boat is a proper way to express your frustration! Now... Oh, great. Now you decide to shut up! Nico?”

Nico called him from a few yards away. “Jason!”

Jason turned to see that Nico was no longer in the boat but trying desperately to swim. “Nico?”

Nico flailed helplessly, driven only by his need to live, and by panic. “Jason!”

Jason turned the boat around and was accelerating fast towards him. “Nico!”

Nico felt himself getting pulled under again and he hated how it made him panic. He hated how he couldn’t breathe and the water surrounded him and everything was black and blue like bruises he remembered. Nico felt it pull him and maybe it was his stubborn will, but he couldn’t. The water entered his lungs and it crushed him as he flailed.

“I can't swim!” He yelled, desperate and unable to stop his cries.

Jason shouted. “Nico! To the buoy!”

Nico turned to find that buoy was only a foot away and rushed to lean on his. He gripped it tight and tried not to let the panic overcome him, but it had. He was shaking, and not from the ice cold water.

Jason rode up next to him and extended his hand. “All right, come on! Give me your hand!”

Nico shook his head. “N-no.”

Jason gave him a sympathetic look. “Hey! Give me your hand! Nico! Give me… Come on, give me your hand!”

Nico looked up at him, golden and bathed in light and Jason couldn’t save him. He’d offer that hand and Nico would sink to the bottom, right to the bottom the way he always had.

Jason extended his hand even farther out. “Come on, come on. I got you.”

Nico took the hand in panic and Jason rushed to pull him out.

Jason pulled him close, afraid for him, and feeling too many things he couldn’t afford to think about as Nico, black hair sticking to his head, shivered in panic in his arms.

“I got you.” He said softly into Nico’s ear.

Jason pulled a blanket out from one of the compartments on the boat and sighed, pulling the blanket around Nico. “Come on. God, what the hell were you thinking? Could've gotten yourself killed.”

Nico shivered and his teeth chattered but he managed to say, “You turned the boat and made me fall in, you jackass.”

Jason snorted. “You let go of the steering wheel,” but he sighed and leaned into the hug, “I'm sorry. I'm sorry.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like for people to not that I will be posting the end of this, but to please respect the time in which it will take. It took a lot of work to do this and these are my longest chapters, so please be patient and refrain from constantly asking for it as it makes me more inclined to not do it because of constant badgering.  
> And as always, submissions are welcome and have a cosmic day! :D


	20. 25 Days of Christmas (Or how the author wants to writes Jasico in the spirit of Christmas)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jason is completely overly sentimental and Nico loves it just the same. (As does the author)
> 
> One thing to note: Please remember, for all of my readers that are not Christian, be you Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, or any other religion, I try and stay away from the religious aspects as possible and focus on the kind of neutral things that people do when they celebrate Christmas.  
> If you want a prompt centered around different religious traditions feel free! I want you to feel the holidays spirit of the gays as well!

_**Prompt:** “i did that annoying thing where i put loads of smaller boxes inside one big box and you’re getting really mad but you don’t know that the ring is in the smallest box and i can’t wait to see your face” _

 

* * *

 

It should be noted that Jason never expected them to live this long.

Being a demigod, like Percy had said once, was no fun. It got them killed in dangerous and nasty ways, and after having lived for twenty years Jason knew more than enough about almost dying to know that he never wanted to experience it again. Jason never expected, after countless of quests and monsters, to live as long as he had with Nico.

At twenty Jason was still alive, and all their friends from the Giants’ War were still thankfully alive. Jason was thankful for that every time someone came home from a quest. Nico had been with Jason since the year after the war. Piper had left him, in a mutual break-up, and Jason went to Nico. It took a few months of helpless pining, long bouts of silence, and finally a meddling father who happened to be ruler of the Underworld. Jason will never admit it but he was thankful for it. Nico, Jason could tell, was happy to be with him and Jason had loved him before he knew that the feelings of comfort and protection had a name.

So now, Jason was Pontifex Maximus and he worked between the camps. He worked as what could only be described as a delegate and mediator. Nico spent his time in the Underworld and at Jason’s side.

Since the war Jason had worked things out with Reyna and for the first few years it had been tough.

“I’m sorry, for not being the right person, for not being a good person.”

Reyna had looked at him in confusion.

“Not a good person? Jason, what are you talking about?”

He wrung his hands. “I was terrible to you, I led you on. I definitely didn’t treat you the way that you deserved to be treated.”

Reyna had nodded, and thanked him, and they went on. Things got easier after that and Nico had even been more affectionate when he heard the news. But Jason hadn’t done it for that. Jason did it because he felt sorry for his old life, more not remembering the parts of him that Reyna missed, but the parts he did have, they were bad. Jason had been cold and he’d been conniving. A true Roman down to his very core, and Jason now, he hated it. He hated the person he was and he felt sorry that Reyna was in love with a guy like that. He wanted to be friends, to give her better memories, a better person to befriend. Jason wanted her to have a friend worth having.

So now they were here. Jason and Nico had a small apartment in the heart of New Rome (that Jason never stopped calling beautiful even with it’s size), and Nico loved him and loved him just the way he was, without the expectations of wars and fans and heroes weighing his opinion. Jason loved him for it, loved him entirely and for the first time in twenty years, Jason was absolutely sure of his decision. He wanted to marry Nico di Angelo.

Jason fell in love with Nico on a Tuesday. He remembers this for one reason.

Percy yelled Taco Tuesday as he ran into the dining pavilion.

Percy ran up the stairs, Grover right behind them, and they grinned at Jason. “Taco Tuesday! Jason, bro, it’s amazing.”

Jason smiled at them and followed after them. As they got their food and offered portions to the gods, Nico walked in. Now, it didn’t happen all of a sudden. Jason remembered a few things from his old life, but one thing he knew for sure was that he’d never fall in love hard and fast. Nico sat with them as they ate at the Big Three table and they cracked jokes. Jason loved how Nico laughed with them, but this moment had been different, because Jason had made Nico laugh and he clutched Jason’s arm as he doubled over in laughter.

And Jason turned and noticed, at the ripe age of seventeen that Nico di Angelo had wrinkles around his eyes from smiling so much, because Jason had done it. Jason had helped Nico’s skin understand joy, laughter, and happiness. Jason fell in love with him then, Nico’s eyes wet with laughter, snorting like a complete dork.

Jason realized he wanted to marry Nico in a different way on a different day.

Jason realized that he wanted to marry Nico on a Saturday in a cafe in New Rome.

They were having lunch, the first lunch they had had together since two weeks before then because Nico was busy with his father and Jason was busy building shrines.

Nico sighed as he slumped into his seat. “Gods, if I have to listen to my father complain one more time. . .”

The ground rumbled and Nico stomped his foot. “Oh yeah, yeah, shut up, old man. You know it’s true.”

People stared at him but Jason just chuckled. “Hard week with your father?”

Nico sighed. “You have no idea. Processing dead people is hard work.”

Jason nodded. “I’m sure.”

Nico gave him a small smile. “How have you been?”

Jason launched into a story about Annabeth and how she had, in a bout of three day insomnia, given a shrine four pillars only a foot apart from each other and how everything else was uneven.

Nico chuckled. “I take it that it took a lot to get it fixed?”

Jason shrugged. “Not so much. Ready to go home?”

Nico nodded. “Sure, one sec.”

He went inside the cafe and came out with a paper bag. He smiled wide now. “Your favorite, brownie cheesecake.”

Jason smiled at him.

It was a simple thing, something as stupid as a nondescript desert, but Jason couldn’t help think, I love you, I want to marry you. It was passing, but it was the first time he’d thought it and it shocked him. He dropped the bag when Nico passed it to him.

Nico furrowed his brow. “Are you okay?”

Jason shook the thought out of his mind. “No, no, yeah, I’m fine.”

Nico picked up the bag and led him away. “Stay focused. You’re losing your touch.”

Jason snorted. “Yeah, right.”

And Jason had shaken the thoughts out of his head, but the problem was that from that moment on he couldn’t stop thinking about it. Nico would brush his teeth while Jason took a shower and Jason would lean out of the shower and Nico kissed him with peppermint still on his lips and Jason wanted to marry him. Jason thought about it when Nico and Jason were told to go get demigods and they fought for their lives and Jason prayed to anyone listening that Nico came out of it alive. Jason thought about it when Nico laughed and smiled at their weekly meetings with their friends. Jason thought about it when he woke up in the morning, and when Nico gave him a kiss as he handed him breakfast and he thought about it when Nico cried at night, nightmares swallowing him whole like the tangible darkness. And Jason thought about it when Nico had bad days, days when he was quiet, and sat on the couch for hours, looking like a ghost, and Jason couldn’t fix him, but he wondered if he gave Nico a ring if Nico would understand that Jason couldn’t, wouldn’t, leave him no matter what.

So one day, Nico sat on the couch and stared at the blank wall and Jason stared at him tentatively as he got ready to leave.

“I’m going out. I’ll be back. Stay safe okay?”

Nico looked at him and nodded. His eyes looked empty, and to keep from feeling skittish he remembered the very day before when Nico had laughed and smiled at him while they baked cookies to give to Percy’s mom.

Jason kissed his forehead and closed the door behind him softly. He walked down the street towards the jewelry store.

Jason and Nico decided that they would throw a Christmas party. None of them were Christian, but every year Percy’s mom had invited them to celebrate it and with her being on vacation this Christmas Jason and Nico had volunteered to host the party in their apartment.

Jason felt mixed things about this. For one, he was glad that they had all their family for the moment Jason would come to think of as the most important event in his life. On the other hand, Jason was going to die from the way his stomach dropped and he felt nothing but nervousness and dread.

Jason was wrapping the boxes two days before the party with Percy.

Percy chuckled as they wrapped the sixth box. “Come on, relax. He’ll love it.”

Jason shook his head. “Or he’ll break up with me in front of all our friends and family. You know that Nico doesn’t like public displays of affection. Maybe I was wrong, maybe he won’t like the way I’m going to propose to him.”

Percy punched him lightly. “Come on, man, he’ll love it. He loves you, so he’ll love it.”

Jason shook his head. “I don’t know how you managed not to vomit from nervousness when you proposed to Annabeth.”

Percy grinned at him. “A strong stomach, my friend.”

They finished their work with the boxes and Jason put it away in one of the closets of the apartment. He turned to Percy.

“Am I doing this right?”

Percy rolled his eyes. “It’s just a dumb gift, he’ll love it.”

Jason shook his head. “No, no, I mean, am I doing right by proposing?”

Percy shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you. I’m not that smart.”

Jason’s shoulders slumped.

Percy put a hand on his shoulder. “But I know that Nico had been more happy in the last five years than any other time. I know that you both love each other a lot, and that has to count for something. Gods, it has to count for something because then I don’t know what else can.”

Jason looked at him. “You’re a lot smarter than everyone gives you credit for.”

Percy winked at him. “Don’t tell the others.”

Jason chuckled.

Percy smiled at him. “Come on, no more second guessing, help me put a ridiculous amount of streamers on your ceiling.”

Jason nodded and closed the door with a resounding click.

Nico got home a little while after Percy left. He walked in, shaking the snow off his shoulders but Jason stopped him.

He smiled as he kissed Nico. “You look like a cranky and wet cat.”

Nico huffed. “Easy for you to say, mister Superman.”

Jason laughed. Nico kissed him back and took off his gloves and coat.

“I got your present today.”

Jason smiled at him. “What is it?”

Nico smirked. “Please, as if I’m telling. Besides don’t think I don’t know that you keep tearing our apartment apart whenever you find out your gift is in the house.”

Jason sighed. “If you say so.”

Nico smiled at him. “Just wait until the party.”

Nico walked into the living room and turned to Jason.

“Percy?” He asked, as if it was the only explanation that seemed reasonable.

Jason nodded, chuckling. “Percy.”

The day of the Christmas party everything went surprisingly well.

Piper and Leo showed up first, taking Jason to his room to have a talk in private. Piper closed the door, glad that Hazel and Frank were distracting Nico.

“So,” Leo started, “I heard from a reputable source that you planning to ask Nico to tie the knot.”

Jason nodded, sheepishly. “I figured, you know, why wait? We rarely live long enough to be married anyway.”

Piper sighed. “Jason, just because we don’t live very long doesn’t mean you should have thought this through.”

Jason frowned. “I have thought this through. I want to marry him. I want to spend the rest of my life with him, even if we died fighting a monster tomorrow I want to know that Nico wants to be with me like I want to be with him.”

Piper smiled at him softly. “That’s good, Jason. I just. . . don’t want you to be hurt.”

Leo nodded. “Yeah, sorry to break it to you, blondie. But di Angelo doesn’t exactly seem like the marrying type.”

Jason sighed. “I know that. I know that.”

Piper punched Leo. She turned to Jason. “What Leo means is that, well, Nico might not be ready to marry you just yet.”

Jason nodded. “I know. Maybe it was a bad idea to ask him to marry me.”

Piper shrugged. “Do what you think is right, Jason. If you think marrying Nico is right, then go for it.”

Jason nodded. “It is what’s right.”

Leo grinned at him suddenly. “Does that mean I have best man privileges?”

Piper snorted next to him. “Please, I’ll be the best woman, and you get to be the flower boy.”

Jason chuckled and shoved them out of his room. “Get out, you’re both ridiculous.”

Leo blew him mocking kisses. “But you love me either way.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Gods know why.”

Next to arrive were Percy and Annabeth. Jason had been by Nico’s side since the discussion with Piper and Leo and when he went to get something to drink Percy and Annabeth cornered him in the kitchen.

Annabeth grinned at him. “I heard the news.”

Jason turned to Percy. “Gods, how can you be a hero of Olympus when you can’t even keep a secret?”

Annabeth shrugged. “I kind of twisted his arm.”

Percy frowned. “Literally.”

Jason looked at her. “Well I had hoped for that. But now I can’t be sure that he won’t find out from all you gossiping busybodies.”

Annabeth waved him off. “Please, six months of pining and Nico had to be told by his father that you were in love with him. He won’t figure it out.”

Jason wrung his hands. “I hope so.”

They walked out into the living room and everyone gathered. Reyna and Hazel sat beside Nico and Frank was leaning against the wall beside them. Piper and Leo were talking to Reyna and Will was making Nico laugh at a joke.

Jason raised his glass of Ginger Ale in the air and everyone did the same.

“To staying alive one more year!” Percy cheered.

“To no more ungodly wars starting in the last few years.” Annabeth said.

“To finally getting to settle down.” Hazel and Frank said, smiling at each other.

“To the best year of my life.” Jason said, as he stared directly at Nico.

Nico blushed as Will giggled and Reyna rolled her eyes good naturedly.

“Boo! You say that every year!” Leo and Percy heckled.

Piper nodded, and Jason shrugged. “Sorry, it’s true.”

After they took their drinks everyone began to shuffle to get their presents.

Leo cackled. “Present time!”

It began with Percy and Annabeth as it always did. Percy gave her an owl pendant Leo had fashioned to become chest armor of one of the eyes of the owl was pressed. She’s thanked them both heartily and gave Percy a kiss. He blushed when everyone cheered. Annabeth gave him a two year contract to be an animal caregiver at the aquarium. He whooped and gave her a kiss, to which she turned tomato red and Jason laughed. After half an hour of trading Will got an astronomy clock necklace that moved based on the position of the sun, and Reyna was given a flowing dress by Annabeth which she loved, and Piper was given a handsewn blanket by Hazel and Frank. Finally everyone turned to Jason.

He swallowed the nervousness that made him feel like his limbs were lead. He walked over to the closet and pulled out the box that was four feet tall. Nico turned to him in shock.

“Who’s is that?” He said, voice soft.

Jason placed it right in front of him. “Yours. The biggest and the best. Just like you deserve.”

Nico gave him a suspicious look and opened the box.

Another box was inside that.

And another.

And another.

And another.

And another.

Nico looked at him. “Is this a joke?”

Jason shook his head, trying to look excited instead of like harpies were pecking him to death.

“Keep going, Nico.”

Everyone watched attentively. Piper and Annabeth were smirking.

Nico opened another box.

And another.

He huffed and looked up at Jason. “You did this on purpose. This is ridiculous.”

Jason actually smiled at him, feeling lighter by doing so.

“Keep going, Nico.”

The box got smaller and finally it could be held by Nico in both of his hands.

_The last box._

Jason smiled at him, his knees going weak but he would have to kneel soon.

Nico opened the box and dumped the box out. That deep blue velvet box.

“No, he didn’t.” Will gasped in shock.

“Oh my gods.” Hazel said faintly.

Nico looked at it in shock and when he looked up Jason was kneeling right in front of him. Nico’s eyes were wide with shock and everyone watched them, hanging off their seats.

Jason swallowed.

“Gods, no one told me it would be this hard to start to even begin to tell you what I want to, so I’ll start with a quote from your favorite children’s book.

“‘I knew when I met you an adventure was going to happen.’ Winnie the pooh said that. Gods, it sounds so ridiculous, but I was reading it the other day and I remembered how you said that of all the things you remembered about your mother, you remembered her reading those stories to you and you felt safe.”

Nico was watching him, tears forming in his eyes and Jason’s voice cracked as he continued. “And I want to make you feel that way. I want to be with you for the rest of my life because our lives are so short, and I always thought about dying before I got old, but with you, Hades, I want to live forever just to wake up with you. I want to stay with you for the rest of my life and if you ever thought that you’d forget me I’d never leave. Because, well, I love you. I love you, Nico di Angelo and I can’t think of a single reason in this world why we shouldn’t be married.”

Nico stared at him, tears streaming down his face, he look horrified, but also shocked. Jason wasn’t sure what he was feeling. Everyone watched them carefully.

Nico’s voice cracked. “You. . . You want to marry me?”

Jason laughed wetly and nodded. “Yeah. I want to marry you.”

Nico looked at him. “Why me?”

Jason shrugged and smiled at him. “Because you hum Italian Opera in the morning and you are so broken but I have never tried to fix you because you’ll fix yourself when you need to, and maybe I thought about how I could see kids with your eyes and we’d love them and even if you never thought you could have that I want to give you those possibilities.”

Nico laughed wetly, yet softly. “I’d be a terrible father.”

Jason shook his head. “You’d be the best.”

He looked at Nico and took the box and opened it to find an intricate golden ring nestled in the box. “So, Nico di Angelo, will you marry me?”

Nico nodded quickly and kissed him deeply. Everyone around them cheered and clapped and there was confetti Jason was sure Percy had thrown but he couldn’t focus on that because Nico pulled away and asked him to put the ring on him.

Jason slipped it on to his finger and laughed. “You’re marrying me.”

Nico let out an honest laugh and he looked near tears again. “I’m marrying you.”

Nico showed the ring to Reyna and Hazel and Will and Will pulled Jason aside from all the congratulations and cheering.

“Take good care of him, okay. Nico’s my best friend and I am so happy you guys are doing this. But just take care of him.”

Jason smiled at him and he didn’t have to worry about that. They’d been doing that for each other since the day they met.


	21. One Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So not that you readers need to know, but sorry I haven't posted. This is the year anniversary of the day my abusive fiancee left and I am having a difficult time finding the inspiration to write, so I am writing this as a coping mechanism.   
> Sorry if it seems a bit sad, but I felt like I needed to write somethings out. 
> 
> In which Nico and Jason have a few problems, and everything is done to the format of a Marianas Trench song.

**_I wake up tonight, feeling paper thin and I'm paper white_ **

**_You say, "Just come back to bed"_ **

Nico fell in love with Percy when he was sixteen. He was the first person to have every looked at Nico as though he was important. He laughed with him, he treated him like a friend, and for the longest time Nico had never been treated that way. He craved the way Percy treated him like he knew him. Percy was Bianca’s friend and Nico knew he stayed friends with Nico because he’d promised Bianca, but to Nico it meant everything to have a friend.

He fell in love with Percy because Percy had always been the one there. In a lot of ways Nico only loved Percy because he’d been there. Just the way some people only ate because they were bored and they had a bag of chips sitting across from them, Nico fell in love with Percy because he was the closest thing he had to a friendship he’d be able to misinterpret it as love of the romantic variety.

Nico was nineteen when Percy introduced him to Jason Grace.

Jason Grace is an amalgamation of the things that Nico fell in love with that he saw in Percy. He deluded himself into believing that Jason Grace was what he could love. Jason Grace smiled at him and Nico smiled back and when Jason asked to go out for coffee, Nico stifled the feelings of dread in his stomach that always gathered there because no one can replace Percy in the way that Nico wanted.

It’s a year later, Jason loves Nico, and Nico loves him too. Sort of.

Nico realized that he had to get over Percy, but laying in bed in an apartment that is equal parts Jason and equal parts Nico, Nico realized that something in him is holding on to Percy, keeping him from all the things he wants from Jason and from their life together. He wondered if he never met Percy if things might be different, if he might be happy. He thinks of all the opportunities he’ll keep throwing away for someone who never asked that of him, but he’ll do it out blind hope.

He sat up in the bed he shared with Jason and looked out of his window at the city, with lights stretching over the surface of the earth and Nico wondered when all the lights in him died. He wondered if they’d ever turn on again, and he realized in the dead of night that he can’t move on from something he just can’t seem to shake. It’d be different if Percy was a terrible person, if he’d hurt Nico, but he hasn’t. He’d been nothing but kind, and something in Nico is dying because he’s forced himself to love someone who can’t return it. He’ll kill himself every night staying up late, sleeping next to someone he can’t recognize, all because he’d decided that the boy from his youth was worth the weariness in his bones. Nico loved Jason, loved him in all the ways that counted, which is why he couldn’t understand the feelings in him that had never gone away.

Jason sat up, groggy. “Hey, you okay?”

Nico will nod and pretend that he’s not crying.

“Yeah.” Jason patted the empty space beside him and Nico wondered if Jason ever noticed that there was empty space even with Nico laying there.

“Come back to bed.”

Nico nodded and covered himself in the sheets of the bed that scratch his skin, and the skin that makes him feel out of space in his life.

**_Voice sounds strange, but I soon forget_ **

**_And your sad blue eyes, like mine_ **

**_Full of pity now, but I don't know why_ **

Jason found out about Nico’s feelings in an argument two weeks later.

They’d yelled about Jason wanting Nico to meet his family and Nico had yelled and things had spilled out of his mouth that he hadn’t meant to say, secrets that were kept in the cave of his mouth because they were safest there. But Nico said them, and Jason had hugged him.

What unsettled him was the way Jason looked at him after, eyes filled with pity, and Nico wondered if Jason knew.

**_The light dims without regret_ **

**_'Til now you're nothing more than a silhouette_ **

****

Jason left Nico a month after that, bags packed and his suitcases by the door. Nico was coming home from college when he saw Jason sitting on the sofa.

He looked at the bags by the door and turned to Jason. “Where are you going?”

Jason gave him a sad smile and Nico knew that sad smile. “I’m moving back in with Leo.”

“Why?”

Nico tried to stifle the desperation in his throat, the need to cling to the person across from him. He’ll repress the feeling like he repressed everything else and he’ll have dignity when this is over.

Jason sighed. “Nico, you still love Percy, you love someone else. I thought maybe we could get past it, but I have to do what’s good for me, and being with you, that isn’t good for me.”

Nico nodded and Jason sighed and took his bags and carried them down the hall. He walked slow, maybe, Nico thought, waiting for Nico to chase after him.

But Nico can’t do that, won’t do it because Jason right, and Jason is also right that Nico isn’t good for him. Nico knew this would happen, knew that one day Jason would leave because Nico is broken and things like Nico can’t be fixed simply because you love them enough. Nico loved Jason, he loved him in a way that was much more permanent than he loved Percy. Jason is the person Nico is fairly certain his soulmate, but things rarely worked out how he wanted them to, so he still loved a part of Percy that lingered in his own heart and his soulmate was walking away and Nico watched him turn around, hurt in those round blue eyes, and Nico went back into his apartment. He sunk to the floor and cried for the first time since he was twelve and his mother and sister died.

It wasn’t enough to love someone so completely, he had to fight for it. But Nico couldn’t fight. He’d fought for so long, against his feelings for Percy and he fought every day that he lived with himself and whatever had broken him. Nico was never this broken. He remembered a time when he was happy. He wanted to go back to that. But just like Jason walking down that hall, Nico could only take steps forward.

_**But just hold quick, you're fading right** _

_**In a cold trick of the light** _

_**I'm just so sick, I thought you might be here** _

_**But you disappear** _

Nico knew Jason wasn’t come back.

Except that every day he’d go home and he’d look around the apartment at the photos of the life he and Jason and had built over a year and he wondered how Percy Jackson had managed to burrow into his mind so completely he’d ruined things that were perfect.

Leo came by a week later with a box and a sheepish smile. “Jason asked me to stop by.”

Nico let him in without a word and he sat on the couch, listlessly numb as Leo flitted around him, taking whatever was left of Jason with him. Nico knew it had been his own fault, that much was certain. He’d done this to himself.

Leo lingered in the doorway but Nico continued to stare at the white walls, white walls that no longer held photos because Jason was disappearing, leaving Nico and maybe Nico could keep a few photos so he’d remember.

“I’m sorry, man. For what it’s worth, we all thought it would last.”

But Nico didn’t. Nico knew it wouldn’t. He was practical, knew that one day Jason would leave because of all the certainties that Nico had in life, people who left was one of them. Nico had allowed himself tenuous hope and it had vanished.

He stopped seeing Jason everywhere. Or maybe, Jason stopped seeing him around, because Nico stayed home, let himself become a prisoner of the walls of some place he’d once called home. He’d lay in bed and stare at the ceiling and it reminded him of when he was sixteen and the weight of that silly crush was burying him and making his bones ache. He did very little beside the regular functions of a routine. Hazel didn’t come by because Nico didn’t want her to and Nico knew he was distancing himself, but after Jason leaving he no longer had any reason to attempt at the haphazard interactions he did before. Nico didn’t cry after that first night. He repressed and repressed because it was his talent and he allowed it to be his best talent for the time being.

He didn’t text Jason. Every time he got the urge to reach for his phone and ask for Jason to come back, to help him with the lead in his stomach and the dread and doubts in his head, he’d toss the phone and lay in bed.

_**Now I wake up and I forget that you were gone.** _

_**A phantom limb is all that I am hanging on.** _

Nico broke three months after Jason left.

He’d been laying in bed, for the fifth day in a row, and when he got up to take a shower he’d passed by the singular photo of Jason left in the apartment. They were smiling in the photo and Nico remembered it perfectly. Jason and Nico were in Central Park and it was fall and Hazel had snapped the photo. Jason had kissed him and as the leaves fell and the seasons changed Nico felt himself change. He thought, in that moment, that one day he’d be changed and he’d love Jason and they would be happy.

And suddenly, in only his boxers and his black hair sticking to his neck, Nico screamed and ripped the photo from it’s position. He’d been foolish to fall in love with a friend and it ruined him, ruined everything he’d tried to build. Nico had tried so hard to get over it, try to move on from things that weren’t good for him, but it seemed he’d just thrown away the things that were good for him. Tears began to stream down his face and he punched the glass of the frame. He threw it on the floor and bent over it he punched it until his knuckles bled and then he stopped and sat against the wall of his hallway he let out a breath. He sat there looking at the photo and how it was now stained with blood, glass ripping it in the frame.

_**So don't stop, no stopping it yet** _

_**What if the one true love's the only one that you get?** _

_**And you've been wishing but you don't know how to stay** _

_**And I've been broken but I'm better every day** _

Nico ran into Jason at Hazel and Frank’s engagement party.

They gave long glances, hushed tones, and at some point Nico wondered how this had become his life. It’s five months after Jason left and Nico saw him and tried to show everyone that he was fine, that nothing about him was broken. Nico felt like he’d been two different people, the person his sister knew, and the one who gave small smiles and pretended that every breath and stp wasn’t as hard as the last. He ran into Jason as Hazel and Frank pushed them together.

“I miss you.” He said, because what else could he say?

Jason smiled at him sadly. “I miss you too.”

And then at the end of the night he walked away because he was broken, and Jason would get better every day he didn’t love Nico di Angelo.

_**So don't stop, no stoppin' it yet** _

_**What if the one true love's the only one that you get?** _

Nico realized a week later that Percy Jackson is a mistake and Jason Grace is the best thing that had ever happened to him.

_**Lost and gone so fast. You get me every time.** _

_**But I live with that. I might do this to myself.** _

_**Only made it worse but I just can't help** _

_**You know I get so attached.** _

_**Listen everyday 'til the dark is back.** _

_**Now I pine for phantom pain.** _

_**It's the only time that I see your face.** _

Nico wasn’t sure what happened to him, had made him so tired of everything that made him weighed down. Seven months of laying in bed and listlessly hoping that he’d wake up and Jason would still be there, be there to say hello to him in the morning and tell him that every insecurity pooling in his stomach was a dream.

Nico remembered in the beginning of their relationship when Nico was broken and he was sure that he was broken beyond repair and Jason sat with him and he helped him. He hadn’t realized it but Nico had overthought everything and Jason had fixed him. But now there were new holes, new pain, and Nico wondered if he went to Jason if he’d fix him.

**_So just hold quick you're fading right_ **

**_In a cold trick of the light_ **

**_I'm just so sick, I thought you might be here_ **

**_But you disappear_ **

Nico knew that Jason’s favorite place was the park half way from Leo’s apartment to Nico’s apartment. He went there for the first time in months. He sat on a bench in the middle of the park, listening to the sounds of children squealing and the cars all around him. He pulled his scarf tighter around his neck to shield himself from the cold December air. He watched all the colors of the park with a new curiosity dampened by his sadness. He wondered if everything had always had the lackluster sheen of colors dulled by his eyes.

He was watching all the people passing when he noticed him coming.

Jason was walking through the park, Piper hanging onto his arm as they made their way down the pavement of the park. Nico watched him walking with her, head thrown back in laughter. Nico wondered if maybe he’d been right and Jason was better off without him.

Jason stopped laughing and when he looked forward Nico’s eyes connected with his and as Jason and Piper continued Jason stared at him, eyes so empty and Nico wondered when he’d done that to the person he loved. Jason stared at him until they passed and Piper turned back to look at him before whispering in Jason’s ear. Nico didn’t know what he said.

He just watched him turn right and disappear into the streets of New York City.

_**Now I wake up and I forget that you were gone** _

_**A phantom limb is all that I am hanging on** _

_**So don't stop, no stopping yet** _

_**What if the one true love's the only one that you get?** _

Piper came by his apartment and slapped him, citing that she knew all about the things they’d done to each other and wished they’d get it together.

He supposed he deserved that one.

**_And you've been wishing but you don't know how to stay_ **

**_And I've been broken but I'm better every day_ **

**_So don't stop, no stoppin' it yet_ **

**_What if the one true love's the only one that you get?_ **

Jason stopped by his apartment three weeks before Christmas.

Nico opened the door, expecting Hazel to be there, but instead it was Jason Grace standing there, looking sheepish.

Nico stepped aside and let him go inside. Jason walked past him and sat down on his couch.

“You don’t look so good. Everyone is worried about you.”

Nico nodded. “People tend to do that.”

Jason frowned at him and scrubbed his hands over his face.

“You need to get better, for Hazel, for Reyna, for everyone. People missed when you were better.”

Nico wanted to be childish, to say that people can’t force him to be anything he doesn’t want to be, but he didn’t. Because Jason had bags under his eyes and his hands were shaking and Nico realized he didn’t want to be here, didn’t want to be around Nico. So he made it easier on all of them.

“Fine.”

Jason nodded. “That’s good. Promise?”

And Nico wanted to sob because when they were laying in bed, having had sex for the first time, Jason had promised him to love him forever, and he’d been disappointing then. If only to save himself from a lifetime of people forcing their way into his life and getting him to eat right, he nodded.

Jason stood, lingering longer than normal. “Okay.”

Nico nodded.

Jason walked to the door and stopped.

He stood there for a long time and Nico wondered what he was waiting for, but then he saw Jason’s fist clench and he knew it was coming.

Jason turned to him, tears pooled in his eyes and Nico couldn’t stand to see his eyes so hurt, so raw, and so empty.

“Did you ever love me? Or was I a replacement for him?”

They’ll never say Percy’s name in his context. They both know neither of them can handle it.

The problem here is that Nico only needed to say a few words, a few words and Jason would be gone, completely out of his life in the way he should stay, because all Nico’s done in his life is hurt the people he loved, but Jason is strong, and Nico is selfish.

“I always love you.”

Jason nodded, gripping the doorknob. “At least there was that.”

“Is.” Nico said.

Jason turned to him, eyes so weary and hurt and Nico wished there was something to say, to fix all of this.

“Right.”

And he was out the door, leaving it open. Another invitation for Nico to run after him, and Nico made it to the doorway, but he ran out of the doorway and his feet froze. He’s not brave, he’s not courageous in the ways that matter, and Jason turned back. Jason turned back and their eyes met. Nico willed his feet forward, but Jason was gone, down the elevator, and for the first time Nico looked down at the feet of his that couldn’t have done that half a year ago.

If this was the last chance he’d get for love, he’d fight for it.

In his own way.

_**What if I wake up tonight and you are real?** _

_**What if we could find a way to try to heal?** _

_**What if there's no stoppin' us yet?** _

Nico saw him at the park when he went the following week.

He sat down next to Jason.

“Hi.”

Jason looked at him for a moment before he spoke. “Hello.”

Nico looked down at his hands, the scars of broken glass faded, scars faded until there was barely any trace of them at all.

“I’m sorry.”

Jason looked at everything but Nico. “About what?”

Because he wanted to hear Nico say it, wanted Nico to finally say what they both knew was true.

“For not telling you the truth.”

Nico wondered if this would work, if Jason could help him heal the things that needed healing and if he’d be enough to heal Jason.

Jason sighed. “You could have told me. I would have understood. I was trying so hard to understand.”

Nico shook his head. “I didn’t say anything because I was afraid you’d leave if you knew.”

Jason looked at him, shocked, hurt, and slightly angry. “I never would have done that. I loved you.”

Loved.

“Loved.” Nico said softly.

Jason’s expression turned sad then. He wrung his hands and turned to look at the birds that flew in the treetops above them.

“It’s been a long time,” he turned to Nico, eyes sad and shining with tears, “a long time. There’s nothing I want more than to find a way back to what we were before, but this, you, I can’t. I can’t keep fixing you and get shut out. I can’t do this, Nico.”

Nico couldn’t either. He wondered if he’d ever be able to fix what had broken inside of him. He looked down at his hands in his lap, helpless.

“Something’s broken in me. I thought maybe it was because of Percy. But it’s not. I’m just. . . I’m broken, plain and simple.”

“I can’t fix you, Nico.” Jason said, eyes desperate and hurt.

Nico shook his head. “I never asked you to, Jason. I need to find a way to heal.”

Jason was silent for a moment before he sighed. “I can help you find a way.”

Nico looked up at him and Jason looked at him as though he was a wistful memory.

Nico nodded. “I’d like that.”

They sat in silence for the rest of their time in the park. Jason took his hand and held it until Nico pulled away to go back to his apartment.

_**What if the one true love's the only one that you get?** _

_**What if there was still a reason not to go?** _

_**What if there was still a little bit of hope?** _

When Nico walked out of therapy Jason was waiting for him, smiling so wide Nico felt that warmth in his chest like it was the first time he’d ever seen him.

**_What if the one true love's the only one that you get?_ **

Christmas was better for Nico this year. After two weeks of therapy and the glimmer of hope in Jason’s eyes, Nico felt good for once. He’d felt better, lighter, and when Jason had walked with him through the park, their cautious hope for recovery felt more tangible.

On Christmas Nico kissed Jason under the mistletoe.

They stood there, Jason’s arms wound around him and he looked up at Jason and tried to find the words, tried to be brave like Jason had always been.

“It was always you. Even when it wasn’t, my brain always knew it would be you.”

Jason smiled at him and nodded. “If you were the only true love I ever got, I think I’d be okay with that.”  
  


_**One Love.** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember that submissions are always welcome!


	22. I'll Be Home For Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so on a serious note, I have been extremely demotivated to do this series. Christmas time is a difficult time right now and I am trying to cope with it, and there's christmas prompts I want to do, but it'll take time and I need for all readers to understand that if I don't do your prompts it's not because I'm not paying attention, it's that I can't find the energy to do so.  
> But I will try! And I will get them out as soon as possible!

**_ Prompt:  _ ** _ It’s nice to see my whole family again but it would be even better if everyone stopped asking me if I’m in a relationship with my friend I brought with me. _

* * *

Nico and Jason had been friends since his freshman year of college. When they met Jason had missed Nico’s many years of awkward sexuality identity searching, embarrassing crushes on unattainable straight men, and the uncomfortable transition physically from boy to young man. So when Will and Nico went to college and met Jason in their Classics course, Nico had already been through the worst and was already set in what he wanted, who he wanted, and who he was. Jason was kind and Nico was not in the business to refuse friendship from nice people. He had a dead sister, a dead mother, and not nearly enough people in his life who committed to him, so when Jason talked to Will and Nico together and made jokes, Nico allowed it. He remained closed off, a bit distant, but that was a reflex of years of bullying for being gay and an inability to form friendships because he didn’t know how. So Jason stayed even though sometimes Nico didn’t speak and was too quiet and sad, but Jason stayed and Nico appreciated it. So they were in their senior year of college and Nico, Will, and Jason were still friends. Nico loved Jason in a very romantic sense that Will knew about, but that was a minor detail.

Nico was sitting in the dorm commons when Jason brought up what was looming no more than a month away.

“So are you going home this year?”

It was just the two of them, because Will had gone to Anatomy.

Nico nodded. “Hazel and Frank are going next week and I’m coming the week after. I have finals next week I need to finish.”

Jason nodded. “Sounds nice. You never went before this year.”

Nico shrugged. He’d gone through that. Nico had gone home the summer previously and his father had done his best to reconnect. It resulted in a lot of shouting, crying, and eventually a carefully crafted dynamic they settled into. Phone calls home helped, and by October Nico had already planned to head home when his father asked him to, and he’d said yes. For all his stoic behavior, his father sounded so relieved and happy when Nico finally agreed.

“My dad offered and I said yes.”

Jason gave him a smile. “Things going well with your dad?”

Nico nodded. “He’s been a lot better.”

Jason punched him lightly on the shoulder. “That’s great!”

Nico looked at him and gave a small smile. “What about you? You never mention going home.”

Jason tensed. “Yeah. . . Not. . . I don’t go home. My dad and stepmother don’t really. . .”

Nico nodded, sparing him from talking about it. “I get it. I understand. Maybe you can come with me.”

Jason’s face lit up. “Really?”

Nico shrugged. “Sure.”

Jason smiled widely at him. “I’d like that.”

So now Nico and Jason were heading home, home being an upstate New York mansion two hours from the city. Jules Albert had picked them up and Nico promptly passed out in the car from all the finals he’d taken earlier that day.

When they arrived his father and Persephone were waiting by the wide oak doors just inside the wrought iron gates of the estate.

Jason looked out of the window in awe. “This place is huge.”

Nico shrugged. “It’s cool.”

They got out of the car and they both took their bags from Jules Albert as they made their way over to Hayden and Persephone.

Persephone smiled at Nico. “Hello, Nico. Welcome home.”

Hayden held out his hand. “Hello, son.”

Nico swatted his hand away and gave him a tentative hug, Hayden was shocked, but relented and gave him a hug in return.

They all turned to Jason.

“Who is your friend, Nico?” Persephone asked.

Nico motioned for Jason to come forward and he did.

“This is Jason. We’re friends.”

Persephone seemed to have a knowing glint in her eye. Nico knew that couldn’t be good.

She walked up to Jason and smiled wide at him before taking him into a hug. “Welcome to the family.”

Hayden grimaced at him. “He’ll do, I suppose.”

Nico turned to them with a confused look on his face. Jason froze.

“Wait, sorry, what?”

Persephone shrugged. “Hazel mentioned Nico would be bringing home someone very special for Christmas this year.”

Nico shook his head. “Friend. Jason is my friend.”

Jason shook his head. “Yeah, we’re friends.”

Persephone smiled at them. “He’s your special friend isn’t he?”

Nico frowned. “Jason is my friend. And he is special, but not the way you’re implying.”

Hayden shrugged and led them into the house. “It doesn’t matter. You’ll be sleeping in separate rooms. Nico, Hazel is waiting for you in the parlor.”

Nico turned to Jason. “Feel free to roam around. I just have to talk to her for a bit.”

Jason smiled at him as they stood in front of their rooms, which were next to each other. “Okay. Thanks for bringing me along!”

Nico gave him a small smile before he walked away.

He was walking down the stairs when Persephone stopped him. “You like him.”

He froze. He knew Persephone. The less he said, the better. His father meddled sometimes, but Persephone was a thousand times worse. She wouldn’t stop until Nico was married to Jason.

“What makes you say that?”

Persephone leaned against the bannister. “You’re different. Kinder. Fuller. Those things only happen with love.”

Nico rolled his eyes, trying to avert her focus from the topic at hand. “Or I decided to finally fix a few things.”

Persephone shrugged, relenting to his logic. “Very true. But I do know what you look like in love. It’s quite a change. Your father noticed too.”

Nico groaned. “Please don’t put thoughts into my father’s head. He’ll end up giving Jason the shovel talk. Needlessly might I add, as we are not a couple and never will be.”

Persephone just sighed wistfully as if she found it charming how naive Nico was. “It’s nice seeing you again, Nico.”

Nico nodded. “You too.”

Nico saw Hazel and Frank sitting by themselves in the parlor. They wore knitted sweaters, were sitting under a blanket and they were laughing softly. Most likely at something one of them had said. Nico tried to stifle the yearning his brain always seemed to bring to mind when he was Frank and Hazel together.

“Father said you wanted to talk? I’d come to you anyway, without a summons.” He said, with an eyeroll.

Hazel smiled at him. “Nico! Dad didn’t tell me you got here.”

She got up and gave him a hug. It was the only hug he ever remembered leaning into since he was small. She smelled warm too, like all the things Nico missed while she was away at college like him.

He felt her hair against his cheek and gave a sad smile. “I missed you.”

She smiled at him as she pulled away. “I missed you too.”

He went over to a seat across from them by the fireplace and sat down in one of his father’s expensive mahogany loveseat sofas. Nico pulled a blanket over himself and looked at them. Frank waved and Nico waved back cordially.

“So, what did you want to talk about?”

Hazel and Frank looked at each other before Hazel turned to him with a big smile. “We’re getting engaged.”

Nico looked down immediately to her left hand and found a simple silver ring on her finger.

Nico wanted to say a lot of things, like they might be too young, or they were just starting out, but Nico knew better than that. Frank had been there when at the age of fourteen Hazel had been dropped off to him and his father. He’d followed in tow obediently, always knowing exactly what to give her that Nico and his father couldn’t. Frank was a good person, Nico knew that too. Frank was built like a bear and large enough to take anyone on, and one time, when someone had catcalled Hazel, Nico didn’t need to defend her, because Frank was already there to do it. Mind you, Frank knew that Hazel didn’t need to be protected, Hazel could hold her own and after all the boxing lessons she’d received at sixteen, Nico knew that well. They loved each other, and Nico could see plain as day on their faces, so when Hazel looked at him as though she was looking for approval, he gave her a wide smile.

“I’m so happy for you.”

Except that wasn’t entirely true. Nico was happy for her in all the ways that counted, but sometimes, Nico would sit alone in his apartment and wonder if maybe he’d been too closed off all these years. Nico didn’t worry about dying alone, he knew Hazel and Frank, and Will, and Reyna, and Jason and so many other friends would be there for him, but sometimes Nico looked at Frank and Hazel and knew they were thinking about growing old together. Nico would have liked that. Except at this particular time in his life Nico was in love with Jason, and that; That was something Nico was just waiting to blow over.

So Nico smiled at her and gave her the blessing he wasn’t sure she wanted, but just in case she had. He smiled and she showed him the ring, showcasing her dark chocolate skin and Frank beamed at her with pride. Nico thought that of all the things he liked about Frank, the way he smiled at his sister was the best quality he had. Nico thought about Hazel and all the choices they’d made when they were younger and of all of them, she seemed to be the most sure of this one. Of marrying Frank. Nico hoped he would be that lucky if the time ever came.

Hazel settled back into her position on the couch and smiled at him.

“What about you, Nico?”

He grimaced a bit. “What about me?”

Hazel shrugged. “Last week when we were on the phone you said you were bringing a friend.”

Nico nodded. “Yeah. Jason’s around here somewhere.”

Just as he finished his sentence Jason poked his head in and looked at Nico sheepishly. “Sorry, I can come back later if you’re busy talking.”

Hazel turned to him and smiled wide. “No, we’re not. Come on in.”

Jason closed the door behind him and walked over to sit beside Nico. Jason grinned at him. “Your house is huge. Much nicer than my father’s mansion.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Only you have a basis for comparison of mansions.”

Jason shrugged and chuckled. “Maybe I just attract the handsome and wealthy type. I can’t help it.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “You are the handsome and wealthy type.”

Jason chuckled again. “Not since I got disowned. You must carry all the burdens of our financial stress.”

“You’re still paying rent next week, Jason.” Nico deadpanned.

Jason sighed and let out a small laugh. “It was worth a try, wasn’t it?”

Hazel smiled at them. “Oh, so he’s your friend.”

Jason smiled at her. “Yeah. We met freshman year, haven’t stopped being joined at the hip since.”

Nico elbowed him as he laughed and Hazel’s eyes grew wide with realization. Nico wondered what realization she’d come to.

She smiled suddenly. “Oh, so you’re Nico’s special friend that Persephone told me about.”

Nico and Jason looked at each other before turning to her.

“You have the wrong idea, Hazel.” Nico said.

“We’re actually just friends.” Jason said.

Hazel frowned before she blushed. “Oh, god, sorry. She just said. . . Well she said you had a very special friend. I assumed she meant boyfriend.”

Nico frowned. “Why?”

Hazel shrugged. “You’ve never brought anyone home before.”

Jason blushed and nodded. “No, no. We’re just really good friends.”

Nico’s favorite time of the year was decorating the living room and putting up the tree. While Hayden and Persephone had gone out to shop, Hazel, Frank, Jason, and Nico had all chosen to put up the tree. It was a fake one, being that Hayden despised having to get a new tree every year. They’d pulled up the tree from the basement and the glass ornaments from the attic and they began to decorate the tree.

Hazel had sent Nico to pop popcorn to string it on the tree when she turned to Jason.

“So,” she began, “you and Nico really aren’t dating?”

Jason laughed nervously, trying to cover up the fact that maybe he didn’t find that an entirely repulsive idea.

“I don’t know where anyone got that idea.”

Hazel shrugged, smiling to herself as she faced away from him. “Maybe we all just want him to be with someone. Not be alone for the holidays.”

“He isn’t. He’s got me.” Jason said, emphatic to display that Nico was never alone if Jason could help it.

Hazel smirked as she hung another ornament. “You sure you’re not dating?”

Nico walked in at that moment and sighed. “Hazel, we already talked about this.”

Hazel shrugged and turned to him with her most innocent smile. “We did. Doesn’t hurt to check. And keep an eye out for father. He’s bringing a surprise.”

Nico furrowed his eyebrows. “What surprise?”

Just as he spoke a sleek black car made it’s way to the front of the house, followed by another car following behind it. Hazel’s smile widened and she ran to the door. She pulled on a sweater and Frank followed after her as they watched Hayden and Persephone get out of one car. Nico lingered in the doorway, cold biting his skin, and watched as his father made his way over.

“I brought you something to perhaps ease your solitude this year.” His father said.

As he said it, people piled out of the car right in front of him. Reyna, Will, Piper, Annabeth, Percy, Thalia, and Leo smiled at them all.

Hazel smiled at Percy and Annabeth. “You guys said you were visiting Sally this year!”

Percy grinned boyishly. “Mom and Paul went on a cruise this year for Christmas. This was supposed to be a surprise.”

Nico looked at Annabeth and her protruding stomach. “How are you feeling?”

Annabeth let out a long suffering sigh. “Good, just as soon as we get out of this weather. My feet are killing me.”

Percy led her inside and everyone followed after them. As they entered Leo whistled appreciatively.

“Your family is loaded.”

Nico rolled his eyes. Hayden sighed. “That is one way to put it, Mr. Valdez. I also took the liberty of the garage being opened at all times for you to take a look and see what’s in there.”

Leo grinned. “Well this heartwarming greeting has been nice. But I have expensive cars to take apart.”

Everyone chuckled as he ran off to go look in the garage. Reyna, Piper, Thalia, and Annabeth went over to the tree and helped Hazel and Frank to continue decorating. Will went up to Nico and smiled at him.

“I finally surprised you!”

Nico rolled his eyes but he was smirking. “I knew something was up. You’re a terrible liar.”

Will shrugged and threw an arm around his shoulder. “I am definitely not able to argue against that.”

Will went over to help a disgruntled Percy string popcorn. Jason stood next to Nico as they stood a bit away from the group.

“You look happy.” Jason said.

Nico looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “Do I usually look unhappy?”

Jason shrugged. “I don’t know. You just seem content.”

And even if Nico didn’t have everything he wanted in the was that he thought counted he looked over and was struck by Jason’s words. Thalia and Reyna hanging off each other and planting light kisses on each other and Percy kissing Annabeth’s stomach as she smiled down at him and Hazel and Frank kissing by the mistletoe near the fireplace and Piper and Will throwing popcorn at each other’s mouths. They were all smiling and laughing and Nico realized that even if he’d been in the dark for so long these people wanted to care for him, they wanted him to be happy. Even if Jason didn’t care about Nico the way he wanted, he cared in the way Nico needed, and that meant everything to him.

He nodded. “Yeah. I am.”

Jason took his hand in a sign of friendship and smiled at Nico. “I’m glad.”

“Hey, baby brother, stop making googoo eyes at your boyfriend and help me put the star on this tree.” Thalia called.

Nico blushed and Jason turned red as he stuttered and walked over to her. Nico went over and watched Jason stretch to put the star on the tree.

Will coughed. “You know, Thalia, Nico and Jason aren’t actually dating.”

“Even if Jason wishes they were!” Percy laughed.

Jason rolled his eyes, but his ears turned red. Nico rolled his eyes at the jibe.

Annabeth frowned. “Oh. I thought. . .”

She trailed off as she looked between Jason and Nico.

They both looked at her, Nico trying to hide his wistful pining. Annabeth seemed to catch on and her eyes widened.

Percy looked at her and whispered. “What’s wrong?”

She shook her head, thankful no one was paying attention to them in favor for laughing and making jokes, the moment of questioning had passed.

That night Thalia and Reyna sat in bed.

“You know, I was so sure they’d be dating.” Thalia said.

Reyna shrugged, not saying a word.

Thalia looked at her. “Nico likes him, doesn’t he?”

Reyna looked sheepish. “It’s his secret. I wouldn’t want the word to get out.”

Thalia patted her knee and leaned into her. “I get it. They’re being stupid aren’t they?”

Reyna sighed and pulled the covers over them. “When aren’t they?”

Thalia kissed her before she settled into bed. “You have a point there.”

Across the hall Annabeth and Percy sat by the fireplace in the room, eating blue chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate. Annabeth was curled in a large blanket and Percy held her as they just watched the fire.

“So what happened earlier?” He asked.

She sighed. “Nico loves Jason.”

Percy shrugged. “So what? Jason likes him too, it’s easy. They just gotta talk it out.”

Annabeth shook her head. “It’s not that easy, Percy.”

Percy frowned. “Why not? It was easy for us.”

Annabeth sighed. “Percy, we’ve been together since we were fifteen. Do you remember the way Nico was after Bianca?”

Percy swallowed, his signal for the fact that he was remembering bad things. When he didn’t talk for a moment Annabeth held his hand tight.

“That isn’t your fault, you know. You had no idea he’d get like that after she died.”

Percy sighed. “I know. I know.”

Annabeth nodded. “Good. Now, maybe we could help Nico?”

Percy shook his head. “I know you have plans thought out, and you’ll want to use them, but I think for once we should stay out this.”

Annabeth turned to give him a shocked look. “Who are you and what have you done with Percy Jackson?”

He chuckled. “Please, I have good ideas sometimes.”

Annabeth snorted. “Sometimes being the keyword. But really, why?”

Percy shrugged. “Nico used to like me, love me, whatever. We have a history. And every time I’ve tried to fix things it just ended worse than before. Plus Jason’s my friend. I don’t think they’d appreciate anyone meddling in their love lives.”

Annabeth sighed and settled back into a comfortable position.

“And here I thought I might be able to use the blueprints this time.”

Two doors down the right Hazel and Frank had settled into bed, hands clasped tight as they faced each other in bed.

Hazel sighed. “I worry about him, you know?”

Frank nodded. “I know.”

She looked down at their hands clasped and she kissed every one of his fingers before she spoke. “I know he likes Jason, and he’s trying not to, but would it be so bad if I thought they were dating? Jason’s been good to Nico.”

Frank sighed. “Maybe he’s just not able to admit it. Especially after Percy.”

Hazel looked at him. “I wouldn’t want him to miss this chance because he’s afraid that someone wouldn’t love him.”

Frank was silent. In all honesty, Frank worried about Nico. Not because Hazel worried about him endlessly, but because Nico had always seemed empty in a way Frank worried about. He’d been better the last few years, but sometimes he’d look so listless when he saw Hazel and Frank wondered what it would take to fix his family. That was something Frank had never expected. That he’d one day see Nico as family. But after Nico had found a way to preserve all the photos of him and his mother in their house in Canada and had some of them framed, Frank considered him one of the most important people in his life.

“I’m sure he’ll get the courage to tell him one day.” Frank said in the dark quiet.

Hazel smiled at him and he loved the way her eyes were lit by the light of the cold moon.

“Maybe you could give him some.” She said.

He pulled her close and sighed. “Nico has to find his own courage.”

All the way at the end of the hall Will and Nico sat in front of each other on Nico’s bed.

“All I’m saying is that you should go for it.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Will, we’ve gone over this a hundred times.”

Will crossed his arms. “No, I tell you what’s what a hundred times and you just roll your eyes and write it off.”

Nico sighed. “He doesn’t-”

Will rolled his eyes. “I’m rolling my eyes. Do you see this? My eyes are compulsively rolling themselves because you’re an idiot. He likes you, Nico.”

Nico rolled his eyes and pushed Will off his bed. Will squawked as Nico pulled his covers over himself.

“I’ll believe that when I see it.”

Will sighed and settled into his sleeping bag on the floor. The lights were out and for a moment Nico was hopeful that Will had gone to sleep, but then he heard a voice in the darkness.

“What are you so afraid of?” Will asked, his voice sounded hushed, dulled by the darkness, and he sounded cautious, like he was afraid he’d hurt Nico. Nico always appreciated that.

“Oh, you know, the usual,” Nico sighed, “fear of rejection, the awkwardness that’ll follow. Lots of things.”

Will looked up at the ceiling. “You shouldn’t be. He likes you.”

Nico looked at the wall as he lay on his side, facing away from Will. “How can you be so sure?”

Will chuckled. “Because I know you. I know him. He likes you.”

Nico chuckled, the sound soft and loud at the same time in the silence of the room. “Do you remember freshman year?”

Will laughed softly. “We dated for, like, nine months. It was a disaster.”

Nico sighed happily. “It was. But we were so happy.”

Will sighed and wrung his hands. “We still are. You and I, we’re happy. You just love someone else and I like being alone.”

“Why did things end? If we loved each other?” Nico asked as he faced the wall.

Will just let out a long breath. “Nico, we still love each other. That love changed, is all. Nothing went wrong.”

Nico nodded. “Okay.”

Will sighed happily again. “Beside, you and Jason, what a pair. That was really meant to be.”

Nico snorted. “Sure, whatever you say.”

Will closed his eyes and felt himself slip away just a little. “He’ll love you, you know. It’s the way he’s always been. He was never friends with me because he liked me.”

Nico closed his eyes. “Then why was he friends with us, Will?”

Will smiled dreamily as he spoke, voice soft from his tiredness. “Because his soul knew yours. From the very beginning.”

Will drifted as Nico slipped into restful sleep.

Piper, Leo, and Jason sat awake in Jason’s room on the second level, all sitting in a circle on the floor, snacks at their feet and curled in blankets.

Leo sighed. “I can’t believe he brought you home and you still haven’t told him.”

Jason sighed. “It’s not the right time, Leo.”

Piper rolled her eyes. “When is it going to be the right time, Jason? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month, next year? No time is ever going to be perfect.”

Jason flopped down on the floor. “Will says that he likes me. But what if he doesn’t? What if I’ve misinterpreted the signs and this ends badly?”

Leo looked at his watch on his wrist and sighed. “Man, as much as I love talking about your boy problems like we’re in high school, I need to sleep. This face doesn’t just happen overnight.”

Piper rolled her eyes and punched him in his arm. He winced and frowned. “I mean, yeah, sure, let’s stay up all night thinking of a way to make di Angelo fall in love with you.”

Piper sighed. “If you ask me, he’s already in love with you.”

Jason lay on the floor and sighed. “We can’t be certain.”

Leo and Piper looked at each other and gave a long suffering sigh in unison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Christmas submissions are always wanted right now! :D


	23. Now The Snow's Coming Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the author finds the motivation to write again and she makes Nico and Jason suffer because it's her favorite pastime.

_**Prompt:** “There’s been an accident downtown due to the snowfall. It’s been on the television for the past hour and…the phone just rang.” AU _

* * *

It started because they ran out of eggnog.

Well, really, it started because Jason and Nico decided that they wanted eggnog and cookies.

They’d been staying in that day because of the heavy snowfall, but Nico had gotten hungry and after dinner they went for cookies in the cupboard, but there was nothing in the shelves. They had both been so excited but hadn’t wanted to go out that Jason volunteered to go to the store to get a few things.

He kissed Nico’s forehead. “It’ll be fine. I’m only going to drive a few blocks down.”

Nico looked out the window at the heavy snowfall and bit his lip. “Maybe we should just stay in.”

Jason just smiled goodnaturedly. “I’ll be right back. Superman, remember?”

Nico chuckled, but it still bothered him how heavy the snow was coming down.

Jason had taken his keys, bundled up and gone out with a good-bye and a kiss. Nico sat home for twenty minutes getting the oven ready and clearing the kitchen from all the mess of dinner. He put on the TV and listened to it absently as he cleaning. Then the warning came.

_“THIS JUST IN: There has been an accident on 187th street, due to the snowfall. We advise all citizens to stay inside for their safety.”_

Nico walked into the living room, slowly, as if he could stop his dread pooling in his stomach. 187th, just six blocks away from their apartment. He looked at the woman on the TV as she reported more.

“Today, at eight P.M. a four car pile-up happened as a result of tires skidding across an intersection. At this moment we cannot show the people in the accident as they are already being taken to the hospital, but information will be released soon.”

Nico felt bile rise in his throat and he ran to reach for his phone in the kitchen. He dialed Jason. Nothing.

He called.

Nothing.

He called.

Nothing.

He called.

“Hi! You’ve reached Jason Grace! This is my voicemail which means I can’t come to the phone right now! Leave a message-”

Nico ended the call.

He called Hazel. He heard her audible sigh over the phone.

“Nico! Oh thank god! I heard about the accident. Are you alright?” Her voice was shaky, but happily relieved.

Nico’s voice shook. “H-hazel. He left to go to the store.”

“Who, Nico?”

Nico’s fist curled in anxiety. “Jason. Hazel, it’s been half an hour. It shouldn’t take this long. What if he’s hurt, Hazel?” What if he’s dead? Nico didn’t say.

Hazel’s voice was soothing in his ear like nothing else was. “It’ll be okay, Nico. He’ll be okay. Maybe he’s just busy and can’t reach for his phone.”

Nico shook his head. “He always answers, Hazel. Always.”

“Nico, it won’t be like last time.”

Nico stilled at her words. He remembered last time. Because last time there had been a car crash Nico was ten and his mother and sister were killed on impact. Nico’s breathing became shallow. His throat closed and before he knew it he was gasping for air, a panic attack taking over his senses.

“Nico?” Hazel’s voice called through the receiver.

Nico felt her voice tether him back.

“Nico, it’ll be okay. He’ll be safe. I promise.”

Nico controlled his breathing. He didn’t say anything for fear that his voice would crack.

After a moment he breathed out. “Okay. Yeah, maybe he is. I have to go, Hazel. I have to keep the line open.”

Hazel sighed. “Be safe, Nico.”

He nodded to the empty apartment. He sat watching the woman on the television continue to give miscellaneous details. His mind began to wander, to Jason and all the things he couldn't help thinking. He wondered if they'd be able to save him or find his body destroyed in all the rubble, his perfect face no longer recognizable. Nico thought about how they were living together and he'd never told Jason he loved him and as he stared at the television he hoped that Jason would live through it so Nico could say it. Say it a thousand times in a thousand different ways to make sure that Jason knew it the next time he was hurt. That of all the things that happened in life Nico loving Jason was an absolute certainty.

Nico had focused so hard on her reports to block out the panic he almost missed his phone ring.

“Hello?” He said, panicked, dread clenching his stomach and filling him with something so deep and nerve wracking he nearly fainted.

“Are you okay? You didn’t answer when I rang the buzzer and it’s freezing out here!” Jason said, his teeth clattered but he sounded as though he had a smile on his face.

Nic gasped, tears coming to his eyes as he laughed. “Yeah, yeah, give me a moment.”

Nico buzzed him and the moment Jason was in the doorway, shaking snow off his shoulders Nico reached up to him and pulled him into a tight hug. Jason nearly dropped the bags in shock.

He chuckled. “I was only gone for an hour.”

Nico buried his face in Jason’s neck. “It felt like forever.”

Jason pulled him off and looked at him with soft eyes. “Hey, what’s wrong? What happened?”

Nico didn’t trust himself to speak so he pointed to the television where the woman was still reporting. Jason’s mouth formed an ‘O’ before he turned to Nico.

“You thought that was me?”

Nico nodded, foolishly his eyes began to water despite his largest protests. Jason sighed and pulled him into a hug, winding himself around Nico, and Nico was grateful for the solid hug, the validity of Jason’s form next to him.

“It’s okay. I’m okay. I’m okay.” He said over and over, running his hands through Nico’s hair.

Nico did something uncharacteristic of him and he held Jason tighter. “I love you.”

Jason looked down at him in shock. It was the first time either one of them had said it. Jason hadn’t said it because he knew what could happen if Nico felt it was too early. It was always like walking on eggshells where Nico was concerned. Jason waited for Nico to be ready to say the words. The snow outside seemed to fall softly now.

Jason smiled at him. “I love you too, but you probably already knew that.”

Nico just held him tighter in favor of responding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Christmas submissions are always welcome right now!


	24. Pine and Pining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> silver_bleeding_earth asked for a prompt and here it comes!
> 
> In which boys are allergic to pine and there is pining (See what I did there?)  
> And to Silver_Bleeding_Earth, I am so sorry this isn't as long as I imagined you would have liked! I am currently working on a project to make you feel so much better for this little drabble! I hope you like!

_**Prompt:** I'm allergic to pine and I hate having to walk in the lobby because the management had to get a giant freaking tree and here you are putting the last minute touches on it._

* * *

#### 

It’s not that Nico hated Christmas. Far from it. Nico loved it. He loved the feelings and colors and he loved the warmth of his apartment and the yellow filter of the Christmas Tree lights in his living room. Granted, the tree was fake, because, unfortunately Nico was allergic pine. Pine, of all things. It was the only inconvenience of the Christmas season. Even in the most urban of place New York City stores insisted on having real pine trees. Nico was smart enough to not go out too often otherwise he’d have c ase of Claratin-D cleaned out by the end of the day. Nico was smart about avoid those blasted trees, and it worked well.

Until three weeks before Christmas.

Nico lived in a nice enough building, one that had one of those unnecassarily extravagant lobbies like the buildings his father lived in. With a lobby as big as that one was he was sure that they would put up a tree. Nico had underestimated how big the tree would be.

Nico walked into the building to find a twenty foot tree towering over him. He immediately started to sneeze. And then the itching feeling came.

He looked up at the tree in disdain to find that a blonde man was decorating it, hung by some lever system.

The blonde man smiled. “Hi there!”

Nico frowned at him and waved before he walked away quickly, resisting the urge to scratch at the spots on his body that were already reacting to the allergens of pine in the air. And with a tree that big, Nico was sure there wasn’t a shortage of them. He made it to the elevator and up to his apartment and was glad when the itching stopped.

He walked into his apartment and was assaulted with the scent of cookies.

Hazel and Will poked their heads out of the kitchen and smiled wide at him.

“How was the meeting with Dad?” Hazel asked.

Nico sighed. “Good. He asked if we were going to go over to theirs for Christmas.”

Hazel looked at him. “And what did you say?”

Nico shrugged. “That I’d think about it.”

Will smiled at him. “I think you should go.”

Nico slumped in one of the kitchen chairs, looking at all the frostings and and candies set out neatly for when Hazel, Will, and Nico would begin to decorate the currently cooling cookies.

“We’ll see.”

Hazel sighed. “Frank and I already said that we’d go. It could be fun.”

Nico nodded. He looked down at his sleeve to find his rash had barely faded.

Will looked down and frowned. “What happened? Are you okay?”

Nico nodded. “It’s fine. That repair guy was just setting up the tree in the lobby.”

Will grinned at him. “Did you finally talk to him?”

Nico frowned at him. “I don’t know why you got it into your head that I like him. I don’t.”

Will rolled his eyes. “You requested he come fix your bathroom three times in one week. All for problems you made just to get him up here.”

Nico looked at Hazel for help but she just chuckled and shrugged. “Don’t look at me. Will’s right.”

Will gave Nico a shit-eating grin. “As I always am.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Sure.”

Will looked at him. “But seriously, you’re not going to talk to him?”

“He’s covered in pine pollen, Will.”

Will sighed. “Just excuses, excuses.”

Hazel placed a platter of cookies down in front of Will and herself and she began to get to work with Will.

“I don’t know, Nico. I think Will’s right.”

Nico sighed wordlessly and took a cookie off Hazel’s plate.

“It’ll happen eventually.” He said, quietly.

It was only a matter of when.

####  **  
**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the next chapter will be a Stardust AU I thought of and it will be a bit of a doozy for the first time in a while, but I am super excited to have you all experience this with me.   
> As always, submissions are accepted! Christmas ones will no longer be posted as of December 23rd and I'll go back to my regular works!


	25. A Sky Full Of Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the author is in love with the Stardust movie and can't stop thinking about it. 
> 
> Summary: A star falls and a hero needs to bring it to his true love. Turns out that fallen stars being actually people hadn't been something he counted on.

_**Prompt:** Stardust AU_

* * *

This story begins in a small town in England called Wall. Wall was a small town joined with other land only by the stone wall that ran along its north side. In this small town in the eighteenth century there came a girl to the entrance of the wall. She longed to see why no one had ever crossed the wall and why no one had ever tried.

The guardian stood at the entrance. “Ah, Beryl. I assume you’ve come to cross the wall like last time?”

Beryl, young and curious, had sighed and pointed to the wall with curiosity. “You know, I really must find what lies beyond the wall! No one has ever crossed it.”

The man grumbled and shook his staff at Beryl. “And no one shall! My family has guarded this wall for centuries!”

Beryl huffed. “But what good does that do you? If only for a measly forest!”

The older man struck his staff to the ground. “That’s enough! You shall not pass me and I suggest you hurry home, you have shop to keep in the morning.”

Beryl sighed and looked down dejectedly. “Oh, well I suppose you are right.”

The old guardian huffed and seemed to speak softly as Beryl began to walk away slowly. “Yes, now run along, girl. Give my regards to your grandmother.”

Beryl nodded and when the man’s back was turned she ran past him as fast as she could and leaped over the rubble of the threshold past the gate.

“Hey! Young lady!” She heard the old man yell.

But she kept on, running past the thicket of the forest to look and see that just beyond the forest lay a brightly lit area. She walked into the market, taking in all the peculiarities and all the oddities and she was breathtaken. She saw eyeballs that moved by themselves and double headed elephants. She saw people of different color and with outlandish tattoos that moved and piercings that moved all the same. She turned on one corner to find a handsome man standing by a caravan cart. He smiled at her. She smiled back and suddenly a hag was in her way.

“I don't deal with time-wasters.” The woman snarled.

She turned to the handsome man and dragged him over. “Get over here and tend this stall. I'm off to The Slaughtered Prince for a pint.”

The man with light gray-blue eyes smiled at her. “See anything you like?”

She didn’t take her eyes off of him. “Definitely. I mean,” she shook her head and turned to the flowers at the table separating them, “what I meant was these ones, the blue ones. How much are they?”

The man scratched his trimmed broom though there was a glint in his eye. “They might be the color of your hair. Or they might be all of your memories before you were three. I can check if you like. Anyway, you shouldn't buy the bluebells. Buy this one instead,” he handed her a flower made of literal glass, with white petals that tinkled like chimes, “Snowdrop. It'll bring you luck.”

She looked up at him and smiled, enchanted with his words and with his world. “But what does that cost?”

The man smiled softly at her. “This one costs a kiss.”

They stared at each other for a moment before he turned and looked around. “Is she gone?”

Beryl nodded. The man pulled her by the hand to the caravan. “Follow me.”

She did as he asked but when they both walked forward he nearly tripped and Beryl looked down to find she had stepped on a silver chain attached to his ankle. He sighed and shrugged.

“I'm a prince, tricked into being a witch's slave. Will you liberate me?”

Beryl pulled a knife of the ones hanging from the caravan and found that every time she tried the metal only melded together even tighter. She managed to cut off a small piece of the silver chain before it mended itself and Beryl was left with a sliver of chain that shimmered.

He winced and sighed, giving her a sad smile. “It's an enchanted chain. I'll only be free when she dies.”

Beryl sighed and walked closer to him. “I am sorry. Well, if I can't liberate you, what do you want of me?”

They smiled at each other and Beryl let herself be led into the caravan.

No more than an hour later Beryl stole away from the caravan and ran back to the wall, glad to have had her adventure and glad it was to be done with. Nine months later and in her bed as her grandmother delivered the baby Jason Grace was born, blonde hair as bright as his mother’s and gray-blue eyes like his father’s, though Jason Grace was never told of his peculiar heritage as he grew up.

This was not the story of how a baby became a boy, but how Jason Grace became a man. He grew into the oddly strong sort, always out of place because he was lanky, but never quite good at anything. He was good at dreaming and imagining and within the course of the next few days Jason would come to realize how special he truly was.

It began the night Jason turned eighteen and he threw pebbles at Drew Tanaka’s window.

He threw one measly pebble and Drew was at her window in excitement.

“Bryce?” She said hopefully.

Jason tried not to be deterred. “No, it's Jason.”

Drew looked down at him in disgust. “Oh. Did I leave something at the shop?”

Jason shook his head and showed her the flowers. “No. I just thought I could bring. . .”

And before he could speak anymore something had smashed the flowers out of his hand. He looked over to find that Bryce Lawrence was standing there in his impeccable suit.

He sneered at Jason. “Jason Grace, shop boy by day, peeping Tom by night. Is there no end to your charms?”

Jason looked down in shame and Drew giggled from her window. “Bryce, there's no need to be like that. Be nice to the poor boy.”

Bryce pointed to the smashed flowers on the ground. “Were those for Victoria?”

Jason found a nearby stick and drew it up as he would a sword. In a few swift movements Bryce had him on the floor. Jason was too lanky, too unable to control his limbs to work gracefully. “You were always useless at fencing in school, Jason. In fact, I'm having trouble remembering if there was anything you were good at.”

Drew sighed, sounding put out and she turned to Jason. “Are you alright?”

Jason smiled at her. “Yeah. Yeah, fine.”

He stalked off and the next morning he was working in the shop when Drew walked in, dressed impeccably and smiling brightly at him. She glided past the long line of customers right up to Jason at the front counter where he was helping the current customer.

She smiled brightly at him. “Hello, Jason.”

Jason dropped everything he was doing to look at her. “Drew.”

She ignored him in favor of looking at the contents of the shelves behind him. “Pound of sugar, please.”

She looked at the current customer with an arrogant smirk that Jason had not noticed. He was too busy being completely infatuated with her. He nodded quickly.

“Yes.”

Drew continued to stare at the shelves. “Let's see, a bag of flour, a dozen eggs.”

As Jason collected all of the things she had asked for he heard her sigh. “Oh, look, I'm sorry about last night. Bryce was really rude. I also need a sack of potatoes and some chocolate, please.”

Jason got what she asked and turned to her. “May I perhaps see you tonight?”

Drew frowned at him. “No, but you may walk me home.”

Jason turned to the long line of customers and his disgruntled boss. “Now? Yes. Yes, I can.”

He stood in front of his mirror and sighed as he began to recite again. “Mother, I lost my job. Mother, I don't... I lost my job. I'm sorry. Mother. . .”

“You lost your job. Yes, so I heard.” His mother said from the threshold.

Jason turned quickly to face his mother. She leaned against the doorway and her face was framed with soft blonde curls.

Jason sighed, eyes troubled and turning more gray as every moment passed. “Mother, I'm sorry. I. . . Maybe Mr. Monday was right. Maybe I am deluding myself. I'm not good enough for Drew.”

His mother frowned and sat down. “He said that? That's poppycock. You’re entirely too good for that girl.”

Jason sighed and frowned. “You want to know how it went last night? Not good.”

Beryl shrugged and kissed his hands like she had done when he was a child and in need of a small comfort. “So you don't fit with the popular crowd. Now, I take that as a very good omen.”

That night Jason went to Drew’s window again. “Jason, I clearly said. . .”

Jason held up his hands. “I know. You told me not to come. I have something for you. A surprise.”

She sighed, rolling her eyes, and shut her window. Jason stared at her window for a moment before feeling dejected and began to walk away. As he walked Drew showed up next to him and put her arm around his.

“It's not my birthday for another week, you know.”

He smiled at her, feeling as though convincing her to come with him had been a victory in its own right.

They sat beneath the stars by candlelight on a wool blanket when Drew sighed contentedly. “I've never had champagne before. My God! This is delicious!”

She looked down at her glass in shock before turning to him. “How did... Well, how does a shop boy afford all of this?”

Jason shook his head. “I'm not a shop boy.”

Drew gave him a mildly sympathetic look. “God! I heard. I'm sorry. What are you going to do now?”

Jason shook his head. “No. I mean, I'm not a shop boy. I was just working in a shop. And now I'm not. Now I'm free to live my life as I wish.”

Drew looked down at her glass with a small smile on her. “This must have been all your savings.”

Jason shrugged. “So? I can make more. That's the beauty of it. I never intended to stay in Wall, Drew. There's a big world out there, I'm gonna make my fortune.”

Drew snorted. “Now you sound just like Humphrey. He's quite a traveler. Do you know he's going all the way to Ipswich just to buy me a ring?”

Jason frowned. “Ipswich? Drew, I'm talking about London or Paris or. . .” His brain stalled as he processed her words.

He looked at her. “A ring? Why is he. . . What kind of a ring?”

Drew smiled conspiratorially. “The word is he's planning to propose to me on my birthday.”

Jason’s heart dropped. “He's going to. . . And you're gonna say yes.”

Drew sighed and threw her hands up. “I can't exactly say no after he's gone all the way to Ipswich.”

Jason snorted derisively. “‘All the way to Ipswich’? Drew, for your hand in marriage, I'd cross oceans or continents.”

Drew smiled at him. “Really?”

He nodded emphatically. “Yes. Drew, for your hand in marriage, I would go to the gold fields of San Francisco and bring you back your weight in gold. I would. I'd go to Africa and bring you back a diamond as big as your fist. Or I'd go to the Arctic and I'd slaughter a polar bear and bring you back its head.”

Drew made a look of disgust. “A polar bear's head?”

She sighed and drew away from beside him. “You're funny, Jason. People like you and people like me, we're just not. . . I should be going. It's really late.”

She began to get up but Jason looked up at her and seized her by the wrist gently. “Well, hold on, then. Let's at least finish the champagne.”

She looked at him for a moment before she relented. “Okay.”

As Jason sat beside her he did not know that the stars watched the earth above him. To him they were simply stars. But across the wall in the land of Stormhold the stars watched eagerly where the King of all Stormhold lay on his deathbed, which was a coincidence because it was the King's final act that would change Jason’s life forever.

“Where is Ares?” Ouranos, King of Stormhold, asked.

Apollo and Poseidon stood by their father’s bedside.

“He's on his way, Father.” Apollo said.

“Then we shall wait.” The king said, his breathing labored now.

Just as he spoke Ares strode in, dressed in the finest royal garments of all shades of red and black. “Sorry I'm late, Father. I came as swiftly as I was able.”

The three brothers looked to the king eager awaiting for his orders of who the next king would be.

“Poseidon. Ares. Apollo. So, to the matter of succession. Of my seven sons, there are three of you today still standing. This is quite a break with tradition. I had 12 brothers-”

“And you killed them all for your throne before your father, the King, even felt poorly. We know, Father. You're strong and courageous.” Poseidon finished for him with an eyeroll.

Ouranos grinned wickedly. “And cunning. Most importantly, cunning.”

He turned to Apollo who stood by his bedside with bated breath. “Apollo.”

Apollo took his hand. “Yes, Father?”

Ouranos pointed to the wide open windows. “Look through the window. Tell me what you see.”

Apollo strode over to the window, back straight in pride as he looked over the mountains at the villages and stars all under the rule of the Stormhold King.

“I see the kingdom, Father. The whole of Stormhold.”

Ouranos watched him. “And?”

Apollo turned back to him. “My kingdom?”

Ouranos shrugged. “Maybe. Look up.”

Just as Apollo did so Ouranos inclined with his eyes for one of the other two brothers to do something about Apollo. Poseidon rushed forward and pushed Apollo out of the window as he screamed as he fell out of the window.

“Jove? Jove?” Ouranos said, in his barely conscious delirium.

“No, Father, it's me, your other son.” Poseidon said.

“Where is your brother, Jove?”

Poseidon sighed. “Sorry, Father. Nobody has seen Jove for years now.”

Ouranos narrowed his eyes at Poseidon. “Poseidon?”

Poseidon sighed. “What?”

Ouranos had the sneaking suspicion that Poseidon had done exactly what he was thinking his son would possibly do. “Tradition dictates the throne must pass to a male heir. And your brother Jove was to be my successor.”

Poseidon frowned. “Exactly, Father. So why would I kill my sister when these cretins are still alive?”

Ouranos nodded, feeling life leave him with every word uttered. “Indeed. Therefore, we shall resolve the situation in a non-traditional manner.”

As he spoke he removed from his body a necklace with a thick yet intricate gold chain and nestled in the gold was a ruby of the reddest blood. It shimmered and floated as he let go, the enchanted jewelry seeming to float to his will. The ruby red stone turned clear as a diamond.

Ouranos spoke his dying words. “Only he of royal blood can restore the ruby. And the one of you that does so shall be the new King of Stormhold.”

As he spoke the ruby and necklace shot out of the room and into the sky as high as they could go. They reached well beyond the atmosphere and shot into space and there was a collision as it exploded and along with some unknown object, began to plummet to the earth.

Jason and Drew were laughing for a moment before the streak of light came into vision directly across from them.

Drew grinned wide. “Oh, Jason! A shooting star! Beautiful.”

Jason got a mad idea. He got a wonderfully mad but brilliant idea. “More beautiful than a fancy ring from Ipswich?”

He turned and took Drew’s hands in his. “Drew, for your hand in marriage, I'd cross the wall and I'd bring you back that fallen star.”

Drew scoffed. “You can't cross the wall. Nobody crosses the wall. Now you're just being silly.”

Jason shook his head. “I'm not being silly. I'd do it. For you, I'd do anything.”

Drew considered this for a moment as she smirked. “My very own star. It seems we have ourselves an agreement. You have exactly one week or I'm marrying Humphrey.”

They shook hands on it. Jason looked up at the sky and all its wondrous miracles and prayed he could bring it back in time to earn the heart of his one true love.

“Stheno! Euryale! Wake up. Now!” Medusa said as she watched the star fall from the heavens.

Stheno frowned. “What is it?”

Medusa grinned. “A star has fallen. Where are the Babylon candles?”

“You used the last one, Medusa, 200 years ago. Do you not recall?”

Euryale sighed. “Perhaps we can obtain another.”

“Perhaps we can obtain another.,” Medusa mocked, “has your mind become as decrepit as your face, Euryale? You speak as if such things are freely available.”

Euryale frowned. “I know, sister, I merely thought. . .”

“You'd have us hunting for a Babylon candle while some other witch finds our star. Fool. There's no time to waste. If we must retrieve it on foot, then we shall.” Medusa growled, the snakes on her head becoming agitated.

“Stheno, we need information. If these divinations are correct, the fallen star lies 1 00 miles away.” Euryale said.

“Four centuries we've waited for this. What hardship a few more days?” Stheno said simply.

“Which of us shall go, then, to seek it and bring it back?” Euryale asked.

They looked down at the slaughtered rabbit and reached for the organs to decide who would go. As they all closed their eyes Medusa opened one eye and went for the heart. A moment later she closed her eyes and after that they all opened them.

“I've his kidney.” Stheno said, disappointed.

“I've his liver.” Euryale said.

“And I've his heart.” Medusa said with a smirk.

The other two sisters sighed and went to a cupboard to rummage to find an old box.

Euryale unlocked it. “You'll be needing what's left of the last star. There's not much left.”

Medusa grinned at her sisters. “Soon, there'll be plenty for us all.”

Jason Grace made his way to the wall in the middle of the night the very next day. “Beryl Grace. Not again.”

Jason grinned. “It's Jason, actually.”

The old man squinted as he looked at Jason. “Oh. You do look a bit like your mother. And I suppose you intend to cross the wall as well, do you? Well, you can forget it. Go home.”

Jason’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Cross the wall as well as who?”

The old man must have realized he slipped because he shook his head and frowned. “No one. Nobody. Nobody crosses the wall. You know that! Everybody knows that!”

Jason shook his head and sighed in dejection. “Yeah... No, no, I know. I understand. Nobody. Well, I better just head for the old homestead, then.”

He was a few steps and just like his mother he waited until the old man’s back was turned and ran. He ran as fast as he could but before he could get a foot away the old man flipped over the wall and tripped him with his cane. Jason tried to get up but the man beat him with the sick and finally Jason lay motionless on the ground with a bruised eye and the old man towered over him.

“Off you go.” The man said with a tired look.

As Jason entered his home his mother appeared from the kitchen. “I thought I heard you come in. Hey, what happened? Are you hurt?”

Jason shook his head as he covered his eye that had begun to blacken. “No, I'm fine.”

Beryl sighed. “That Bryce again?”

Jason shook his head. “No. Actually, it was the guard. The guard at the wall.”

Beryl chuckled. “Jason, he's 97 years old.”

Jason sighed as his mother got him a cloth to cover his eye to allow the swelling to go down. “Well, that's given him plenty of time to practice, then, hasn't it?”

Beryl gently padded the cloth against his eye and sighed. “Why, may I ask, were you trying to cross the wall?”

Jason looked at her pointedly. “I might ask you the same thing.”

She stilled, knowing she’d been caught in the lie. She sighed and put the cloth down to lead him to the attic. She led him to a chest filled with the things Jove had told the guard at the wall to give to her when she had told him she was pregnant and had run off before he could say little else.

Jason never thought about it. He had always had his mother and even the people in the village chose not to comment on it. Jason always thought it was because they respected her too much to say little else but the whispered gossip. Jason had never thought to ask and his mother never told him. The real reason no one had ever said a bad thing about Beryl Grace was because she had crossed the wall, and she had come back. And no one talked about those who went beyond the wall. But Jason was shocked to find that he had a father. His mother had raised him and he’d been grateful but he had never considered his father a part of the equation of their neat life at the edge of the town. He remembered vague stories about it from his childhood before Beryl had decided to say as little as possible about his father.

Jason looked down at the basket of gifts his father had left him. In truth it was three things. A black candle and a letter.

He looked down at the neat script. “I have a father. I mean, I have a father. He could still be alive.”

Beryl sighed wistfully. “Oh, I hope so. I certainly like to think so.”

Jason looked down to find the little sliver of chain that glowed dimly. “The chain you cut. Just like you said.”

He reached into the basket and found the fabled glass flower, the most prominent thing that Jason remembered from all the stories.

“And the glass flower. The flower he sold to you.”

Beryl smiled softly, looking at the flower fondly. “He told me it would bring me luck. And it did. It brought me you.”

She rummaged through the basket and pulled out the letter that wrapped the black candle.

“This was also in the basket. I've never opened it. It's addressed to you.”

_"My dearest Jason, please know that it pains me to write this as it were. It gives me a heavy heart to know I cannot be there for you. Had my mistress allowed it, I would have kept you in a heartbeat- My dearest wish is that we will meet someday, that I might show you the kingdom which I find so dear. The fastest way to travel is by candlelight. To use it, think of me and only me. I will think of you every day, for always._

_-Your father"_

Jason turned to his mother, taking the candle and holding it tightly. “Well, do you... Do you have a light?”

Beryl took a match and lit the black candle and before either of them could say anything there was a blast of light and Jason was soaring through the sky. He was soaring so fast that when he landed he crashed into a young man.

He grunted from the force of the hit but he stepped back to see that the young man. He had dark black curly hair and eyes that had gold rings around his brown irises.

“Father?” Jason asked.

He lifted himself up a bit and when the young man groaned he began to apologize. “Oh! Oh, Mother, I'm so... I'm so sorry. Are you alright?”

“No, I'm not. And I'm not your father, so get off me!” The young man said in anger.

Jason’s eyebrow furrowed. “You're... You're not my father?”

The young man gave him a sharp look. “Do I look like I'm your father?”

Jason sighed and shook his head. “No. Sorry. Well, are you alright? Do you want some help?”

The young man huffed. “You can help by leaving me alone!”

Jason nodded. “All right,” he thought for a moment, “oh, my God. ‘Light the candle and think of me.’ I was. I was thinking of my. . . But then Drew and the star just popped into. . .”

He turned to the dark haired young man. “Oh, excuse me, sir. Sorry. This may seem strange, but have you seen a fallen star anywhere?”

The young man narrowed his eyes at Jason. “You're funny.”

“No, really, we're in a crater. This must be where it fell.”

The young man started sarcastically. “Yeah, this is where it fell. It is. Or if you want to be really specific, up there is where this weird, bloody necklace came out of nowhere and knocked it out of the heavens when it was minding its own business. And over there,” he pointed to where he had been laying previously before getting hit, “is where it landed.”

He pointed to himself. “And right here, this is where it got hit by a magical flying moron!”

Jason looked at him in shock. “You're the star! You're the star? Really? But aren’t they usually. . .”

The young man frowned. “What? Women? That’s very sexist of you.”

Jason shook his head. “Oh, wow. No, I'm sorry. I had no idea you'd be a. . .”

He sighed and looked down at the silver chain in his hand. “May I just say in advance that I am sorry?”

The young man sighed. “Sorry for what?”

Jason moved quickly and tied the unbreakable chain around the young man’s wrist. “For this. Now, if I am not mistaken, this means you have to come with me. See, you're going to be a birthday gift for Drew, my true love.”

The young man threw his hands up in frustration. “But of course! Nothing says romance like the gift of a kidnapped, injured man!”

He huffed and nearly snarled at Jason. “I'm not going anywhere with you.”  
  


 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will continue this AU soon after Christmas!


	26. Santa Baby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Hazel is the cutest but spunkiest seven year old, Nico is unable to fight cute doe eyes, and Jason is an elf. 
> 
> TheFangirl user submitted this prompt to me and I'm sorry it's a day late!   
> But this counts, right???? Please tell me this counts. I feel like it should.

_**Prompt:** I had to bring my little sister to see Santa, and you continue to distract me because of how hot is one of the elves _   
  


****************************************

 

Nico wasn’t sure what he expected when he first met Hazel. 

The summer Nico turned eighteen his father told him he had a sister. A little sister. He had been expecting a slightly younger sister from the way his father said it. He thought she was some moody sixteen year old, not to far from the way Nico had been once upon a teenhood. He expected her to be old enough that his presence never really mattered, because like everything in his family, it was easy to forget and exclude Nico. His father hadn’t told him more than that and he never asked, it was the way their relationship worked. 

Until Nico turned twenty-two. 

It started because Nico’s father had a business meeting in Prague with his stepmother. 

“If it were avoidable we would take her with us, but we cannot and Persephone cannot leave her with the nanny as we already paid her vacation days off.” His father said.

Nico sighed. “It’s fine. When will you guys drop her off?”

He heard a pregnant pause over the voice and then his father said, “This afternoon. Thank you for caring for her while we’re gone.”

He flopped down on his couch. “Not like I had plans this Christmas, it’ll be fine.”

There was bitterness in his voice that neither of them was willingly to acknowledge. His father chose to hang up instead and Nico turned to Will and Reyna. 

“My sister’s coming.”

Reyna shrugged. “It shouldn’t be too hard, isn’t it? She’s gotta be at least a preteen.”

Will rolled his eyes and smirked. “Right, because he did so well with the preteens the first time around.”

Nico rolled his eyes but didn’t protest. They all knew about the awkward, brace-faced, acne ridden boy Nico had once been and how well that had gone. They knew it was a universal truth that Nico had once been an awkward teen and that topic was never to be spoken of. They cleaned out the apartment and Nico got the bedsheets changed for his sister and checked that the pull out sofa worked just fine. 

When Nico looked out the window of his apartment two hours later he looked down at the street to find a cinnamon haired girl standing hesitantly at the feet of the steps of his apartment. A sleek black Mercedes town car was pulling away and there were hands waving at the girl. Nico went down in the elevator and found the girl still standing at the foot of the steps. He walked out of his apartment and she turned to him with worried hazel eyes. 

“You’re Hazel?”

“Are you Nico di Angelo?”

Nico nodded. “I’m your big brother.”

The girl’s eyes widened and she threw herself at him. He nearly squawked trying to hold her as she lept onto him, clinging to him tightly. 

He grunted. “You’re smaller than I expected.”

Hazel giggled and pulled away in his arms. “I’m not small! I’m seven whole years old!”

Nico smirked. “Seven, huh?”

Hazel nodded emphatically. “Uh-huh.”

Nico held her as her small body clung by his neck and he used one hand to take her small duffel and suitcase inside with them. 

Hazel hummed happily as they walked into the lobby and she gasped when they did.

He turned quickly, worried she might be hurt, but he turned and she was looking up in wonder. 

He turned to what she was looking at. “You’ve never seen a Christmas tree?”

Hazel sighed, “Father won’t let me decorate it all colorful. We have a boring white and gray one.”

Her face twisted into discomfort and Nico chuckled. 

They walked into the elevator and Hazel smiled at him. “Father says you’ll take good care of me. You will, won’t you, Nico?”

Nico didn’t look at her, but at the light that indicated what floor they were on. “I’ll try, Hazel.”

They got on their floor and Nico looked at her. “I have two roommates, okay? We all live together.”

Hazel looked nervous and curled her fist tightly around Nico’s shirt. 

“Okay.” She said quietly. 

They got to the front door of his apartment and he turned and looked down at her. “What is it?”

She wrung her hands. “Father says I shouldn’t complain.”

Nico kneeled in front of her. “Just because he says those things doesn’t mean you have to listen, Hazel.”

Hazel looked at the door nervously. “They won’t like me. Father has partners and I’m never allowed to talk when they’re around. I gotta sit and be quiet.”

She turned to Nico with a frantic look in her eyes. “I don’t like being quiet, Nico.”

He sighed and put a hand on her shoulder. It brushed her light curls. “They’ll like you. Dad wouldn’t have sent you to visit if he didn’t think that.”

She looked at him through her thick eyelashes and she looked for all the world like a Christmas angel. 

“You really think so?”

Nico nodded and took her hand before he stood. He held her hand as he unlocked the door. He smiled down at her and she gave him a small smile in response. 

They walked through the door and Nico took her luggage as Will and Reyna stood in the living room to greet them. 

“Hi!” Will said. 

Hazel’s eyes widened and she turned to Nico in wonder. “He’s an angel, a Christmas angel.”

Will laughed, a light and happy noise. He winked at her with a playful light in his eyes. “Don’t tell anyone my secret.”

Hazel shook her head. “No! I pinky swear I won’t!”

Will bowed and held his hand out. “Pleased to meet you then.”

Hazel giggled and held out her hand for him to give a chaste peck to the back of her hand.

Reyna rolled her eyes and stood next to Nico. “Will, please, I know we have a child here, but that doesn’t give you an excuse to act like one.”

Hazel turned to Reyna and she gasped. “Are you a princess?”

Reyna had yet to change from her dress she wore to a ball for her company clients. It was a flowing chiffon dress with purple silk, and her hair was braided to one side with jewels pinned in her hair. 

She chuckled and shrugged. 

Hazel turned to Nico. “What about you?” 

Nico’s eyebrows furrowed. “What about me?”

Hazel pointed to Will and Reyna. “Well, Will is an angel, and Reyna’s a princess. Don’t you have a superpower?”

Nico gave them both a look before he shrugged. “I guess I don’t.”

Hazel patted his leg, he stood impossibly tall and she was only to his waist. 

She gave him a sad and sympathetic look. “It’s okay, Nico. You don’t have to have a superpower.”

Nico smiled at her and went to take her luggage to his room. Reyna appeared in the doorway as he was laying out her pajamas and things for the night.

She had her arms crossed as she leaned across the doorway. “So she’s younger than we expected.”

Nico shrugged. “She’ll be easy to manage.”

Reyna sat down on the bed as he laid out her toiletries. “She’s sweet, Nico.”

Nico looked up and gave her a small smile. “She’s only half of my father. She got all the good parts of him.”

Reyna chuckled and looked around the room. “Let me know if taking care of her gets too difficult and Will and I can help.”

Will appeared in the doorway when Hazel on his back. They were both grinning.

“What about me?” Will said.

Reyna gave him a fond look. “We were just talking about how childish you are.”

Will looked affronted. “Hey! I am totally a capable adult.”

Hazel giggled. “But you spilled hot chocolate and raced me to see who could lick it off the table faster.”

Nico gave him a stern look and he looked around sheepishly. Will turned his head to glare at Hazel on his back.

“You swore to secrecy! I shall punish you with bathtime!” He exclaimed and they raced down the hallways. Reyna turned to Nico and they both shook their heads before they went to give Hazel her bath. Will and Reyna let him be alone with her as he ran the water and Hazel got in the bubble bath. 

He was washing and scrubbing her back when she sighed happily. 

Nico smiled. “You like this?”

Hazel smiled at him. “Father never lets me have bubble baths. And the nanny gives me my bath.”

Nico nodded. “I’m sorry, Hazel.”

She shook her head. “It’s okay. Father is busy, and momma is too.”

Nico’s free fist curled tightly. “They should still take care of you.”

Hazel shrugged, completely oblivious to Nico’s upset. “You’ll take care of me, Nico.”

And something about the innocent statement she said with ever hint of truth Nico had ever heard calmed him. She didn’t think her parents had abandoned her, not like Nico had. Not like Bianca had after their mother died. Hazel was young still, too young to understand that parents were there for you and they didn’t leave the month of December for meetings in beautiful countries and they gave you kisses goodnight and they loved you unconditionally.

Hazel turned to him. “Nico? Is everything okay?”

He snapped out of his reverie. “Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m good.”

She smiled at him. “Good. Do I get to stay up late?”

Nico chuckled and reached for a towel to take her out of the bath. “We’ll see.”

After she changed and lay in his bed tucked in he sat at the foot of the bed and she looked at him. 

“Nico?”

He looked up at her. “Yeah?”

She smiled at him. “I’m glad I got to stay with you.”

He gave her a genuine smile. “Me too.”

He got up and went to the door.

“Oh, and Nico?”

He turned back to her small figure in the warm brown blankets of his bed. 

She wrung her hands over the covers. “Father said some other things.”

Nico turned with his full attention to her now. “What did he say, Hazel?”

She looked at him nervously. “He said you were mean. And lonely. And bad. You’re not bad are you, Nico?”

He sighed. His father always spoke too frankly and Hazel had taken it all literally. He went over to the bed and sat beside her.He looked down at his hands before he spoke. 

“I’m not bad, Hazel. There are some things that Dad and I have never agreed on and he doesn’t like that. And there was an accident.”

Hazel gasped, eyes worried and stormy. “Accident?”

He nodded. “A long time, before you were born, Hazel. My sister, my other sister, she and my mom died.”

Hazel gave him a frown. “You have another sister?”

Nico shook his head. “Had.”

Hazel sat up and looked at him. “But why does that make you a bad person, Nico?”

He shrugged. “Father was hurt, Hazel. He was hurt that after that I left and moved here. People will make others seem bad when they’re hurt.”

“And are you still lonely, Nico?” Hazel asked softly, like she was afraid he would yell at her.

Nico thought about how he was happier, how even if he wasn’t really with someone or anything like that he had his friends and that was enough. He thought about how he looked forward to coming home now, how he loved the smells of his apartment and Reyna and Will there to greet him. He thought about Percy and Annabeth and how they’d all built a home. 

“No, Hazel. I used to be, but not anymore.”

She placed her hand over where his sat over the covers and he looked up to find she was giving him a look of understanding well beyond her years. 

“I’m sorry, Nico.”

Nico gave her a small smile. “It’s okay, Hazel.”

He got up and walked away, but just as he had his hand on the knob Hazel called after him. 

“Nico?”

Nico turned to her. 

She sighed and for a moment she didn’t say anything, so Nico turned around again but then he heard feet patter and arms wound around his waist and he looked down at his side to find Hazel held him in a hug. 

“Love you.” She said into his pant leg.

He ran a hand through her soft curls. “Yeah, me too, kiddo.”

She ran back to her spot on the bed and tucked herself in before he processed the entire ordeal. 

“Good night, Nico.” Hazel said.

Nico opened the door and gave her a small smile. “Good night, Hazel.”

He shut the door behind him and he turned to find Reyna and Will smirking right down the hall. He rolled his eyes.

“She’s attached herself to me. She has my father as a parent, can you blame her?”

Will grinned at him. “You like her.”

Nico glared at him. “I’m taking care of her. It’s what I’m supposed to do.”

Reyna shrugged. “Your evasion of the question says it all, Nico.”

He rolled his eyes and went to the pull out bed in the living room. “Good night, you two.”

 

**\-------------------------**

 

Nico woke up that morning to find a little girl curled into his side. Nico slept on his back most nights and when he woke up that morning he found that Hazel had crawled under the covers and had an arm wrapped around his waist. She was snoring lightly and when Nico felt the urge to use the restroom he put a pillow in his place, hoping that it didn’t disturb her. He padded over to the bathroom and when he came out he found she was still asleep. He looked over to find Will was barely waking up and making his way over to the kitchen.

Nico pulled pans out of the cabinets and turned to Will. “You turn on the coffee and I’ll make breakfast.”

Will, still groggy and far too cranky for such a happy person, just grunted. Nico took it as a sign of his ascent.

Nico set to work making pancakes and when he was just putting all the food on the table in the kitchen Hazel waddled over in her pajamas. 

“Nico?”

Nico looked up and gave her a small smile. “Just making breakfast.”

Hazel rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and smiled at him. “I love pancakes!”

Nico shrugged and Will grinned at her. “Who doesn’t? Say, wanna bet to see who can eat the most?”

Hazel giggled. “You’re silly, Will.”

Will sighed. “I even have to convince the child I am a mature adult. Tragic.”

Reyna appeared in the doorway. “It’s because she knows better.”

Hazel smiled at Hazel as she made her way over to the table. “Good morning, Hazel.”

Hazel smiled and waved at her with a mouth full of syrup, strawberries, and chewed up pancakes.

Nico watched Will and Reyna take a few pancakes and drink their coffee slowly and he sat with his small pile and ate and it felt weirdly normal, with his sister sitting across from him. He thought he might not like her, might resent her for taking up all of her father’s attention. But as he looked at her giggling as Will made funny faces at her and Reyna helping her cut up the pancakes into edible bites he found it exceedingly difficult. He looked at her in her princess pajamas and couldn’t think of a single reason for why he should ever feel any negative emotion toward Hazel.

Hazel turned to Nico. “Nico! Will says you guys put up a tree, can I help? Please? Please? Please?”

Nico chuckled and nodded. “Sure. We’ll get it tomorrow.”

Hazel cheered and she went back to her food. 

As they all ate silently there was a knock at the door and Will went to answer it. 

Will went to kitchen and sighed. “Percy is here with Annabeth and Thalia.”

Reyna looked up quickly at the mention of Thalia. Nico sighed. 

“Hold on.”

Reyna and Will went to greet the three people and Nico sat next to Hazel as she continued to eat. She looked nervous but also like she was trying to hide that nervousness and Nico felt a rush of sympathy.

“Hazel, my friends are here. You don’t have to be quiet, okay? I promise.”

Hazel nodded. She looked at him and gulped down her food before she spoke. 

“And they’ll like me?”

Nico smiled at her and ruffled her soft curls. “They’ll love you.”

She nodded, pushed her chair away from the table and hopped off of it. He stood, towering over her, and smiled at her as he held out his hand. 

“Ready?”

She nodded, eyes set in hard determination that Nico loved and admired. 

“I’m ready.

 

Percy, despite what Nico had thought in his previous years, was great with kids. He was good with them much in the same way that he was good at acting silly. 

When Nico and Hazel first walked into the living room Percy and Annabeth turned to them.

“Hi there.” Percy said softly. 

Hazel hid partially behind Nico’s leg and waved shyly at them, no longer having the bravado that she had in the kitchen a moment ago. 

Percy held his hand out for a handshake. “I’m Percy. Who are you?”

Hazel cautiously took his hand and spoke. “I’m Hazel.”

Percy grinned at her. “Hazel, just like your eyes. Nice to meet you, Hazel.”

She smiled at him when she determined he was not a threat. 

Will smiled at her from where he sat on the couch. “Percy and Annabeth are our friends.”

Hazel looked up at Annabeth still in her beige cashmere sweater and burgundy skirt with her blond hair tied up and pinned by pencils. 

Hazel looked at her with wondrous eyes. “Are you a princess like Reyna?”

Annabeth smiled at her. “Kinda.”

Percy nodded at Hazel. “Sure she is!”

Hazel turned to him. “But then what does that make you?”

Annabeth chuckled. “He’s the frog prince.”

Hazel giggled when Percy rolled his eyes. 

Percy and Annabeth stayed for a little while longer until they left, promising to come by tomorrow to help them pick out a tree and Hazel waved happily at them when they left at noon. 

Nico sat beside her on the couch. “What now?”

Hazel sat next to him, twiddling her thumbs. “Have you got presents for Christmas?”

Nico shook his head. “I haven’t had the time.”

Hazel’s eye brightened. “Can we go to the mall, Nico? Please! Please?”

Nico smiled and got up. “Come on, kiddo. We have to get you dressed if we’re going to go anywhere.”

Half an hour later Nico and Hazel were clad in mittens and hats and scarves as they made their way to the front door. Reyna smiled at him as he got his keys and wallet. 

“Having a family day out?”

Nico shrugged. “I have shopping to get done and Hazel wanted to come with.”

Hazel nodded happily beside him.

Reyna smiled. “Have fun.”

They left and Hazel hopped along happily beside him as they walked to the corner of the street to get a cab. They rode the cab all the way to a nearby mall and Hazel’s eyes glowed with the lights of the decorations already hung in the mall.

They walked in and out of stores, Nico coming out with bags, and more often than not Hazel convinced him to get her something from each place. He’d say no, trying to defy the sad looks she gave but in the end he took the thing she’d asked for and put it on the counter for the cashier to ring up. She smiled brightly at him, full of gratitude. When they saw a Santa’s Workshop in the center of the center of the mall Hazel gasped. Nico looked over and smiled down at her, picking her up. 

“Want to go ask Santa for some gifts for Christmas?”

Hazel nodded and quickly and they made their way over. 

  
  


Jason loves Christmas. He wanted everyone to know that. He loved Christmas and he loved the Christmas season. Jason hated being Santa’s helper at the mall. 

Leo rolled his eyes. “Hey, lighten up, it’s not that bad!”

Jason sighed and snorted. “Just because one of us looks like an elf. . .”

Leo swatted at him and he dodged. He stood by the entrance of the Santa’s workshop, not believing Leo had roped him into the job. It wasn’t even like Jason needed money. Jason had a decent job, where he had self-respect and dignity. 

 

Nico and Hazel walked up to the two men dressed as elves at the entrance. Nico was rummaging to get his wallet with his one hand carrying Hazel and the other holding bags. He put down Hazel and reached for his wallet. 

He looked up. “Two tickets for the Santa’s workshop, please.”

A blond man with light blue eyes smiled at him. “Great. Is that your daughter? She’s cute.”

Hazel blushed and hid behind Nico’s pant leg and Nico shook his head. “No, she’s my sister.”

Nico expected some sort of ignorant comment, but instead the blond man bent down and handed Hazel a candy cane. 

“Santa’s says I can only give these to the good kids.”

Hazel beamed at him and she turned to Nico. “Santa knows I’ve been good this year.”

She took her ticket and bounded off to get in line for a picture with Santa.

Nico chuckled and turned to the blond man. “Thanks for that.”

The blond man smiled impossibly brighter and something dropped in the pit of Nico’s stomach.

“No problem. I’m Jason.”

Nico gave him a small smile. “I’m Nico.”

Just then Hazel ran over. “Nico, come on! It’s good that no one’s in line, I gotta talk to Santa.”

Nico turned to give Jason a goodbye but the man help up his hands. “Hey, no, I get it. Small kids and Santa. You can’t wait for things like this. Santa’s a busy man.”

Hazel hummed and pulled at Nico’s hand and he let himself be dragged away. As he waited in line with Hazel Nico and Jason spared glances at each other every few seconds. 

“Nico, do you want to kiss Santa’s elf?”

Nico turned to her and choked on air, making an indignant noise. “What?!”

Hazel rolled her eyes. “Father says that when people like each other they want to kiss. I think.”

Nico turned back to Jason who waved at him and he gave a nervous smile back. 

“I don’t even know him.” Nico said it more to himself than the seven year old standing beside him.

Hazel rolled her eyes anyway. “So? Momma says she didn’t know Father at some point before she married him.”

Nico chuckled and rolled his eyes. “I’m not looking to get married, Hazel.”

Hazel sighed forlornly. “But I wanted to plan it.”

Nico shook his head in disbelief and nodded toward the line. “It’s your turn, Hazel.”

The jolly man sitting in the chair welcomed Hazel with open arms and she climbed into them. Jason and the hispanic boy stood on either side of Santa as he greeted Hazel.

“Hello young lady! What would you like for Christmas?”

Hazel looked ready to launch into a long list of wants, but she looked at Nico and looked at Jason and before Nico could even process it Hazel turned to Santa and smiled. 

She said, “I want for my big brother to marry Jason the Elf.”

Santa laughed loudly, a big and honest laugh and Leo doubled over in laughter as well. Nico watched her bounce off Santa’s lap and took her hand in horr, feeling a stillness of shock. He walked with her in his arm and the bags in the other and he was walking quickly out of the workshop area.

“Hazel, what was that?”

Hazel looked up at him nervously. “Am I in trouble? I just wanted you to be happy.”

Nico shook his head. “You’re not in trouble. We’re just never coming to this mall again.”

Hazel made a noise of protest. “But we can’t do that! You have to kiss Jason under the mistletoe!”

Nico shook his head and opened his mouth to speak before someone interrupted him, calling his name from behind them.

“Nico!” Jason called.

Nico turned slightly to look at Hazel who looked at him and grinned. “He came after you, Nico!”

Nico gulped. “How fast do I have to walk for us to get lost in the crowd?”

Hazel turned to see how far away Jason was. She turned to Nico. “He’s right behind us.”

Nico cursed and set her down on the ground, to which she made a noise of displeasure. He turned around slowly and Jason was right in front of them now. 

Nico sighed. “Listen, sorry about Hazel.”

Hazel crossed her arms and furrowed her eyebrows and gave Nico a put out look. He gave her another look and she just huffed. Jason chuckled. 

He pulled out a pen and a piece of paper and scribbled something down before he handed to Nico. It was a series of numbers. More specifically, it was a phone number.

Jason smiled at him and gave Hazel a wink. “Santa might come through after all.”

He jogged back to his station at the workshop and Nico looked at the paper in shock. Hazel squealed and jumped up and down.

“Santa’s gonna give us a great Christmas!”

Nico just pocketed the piece of paper, shook away his shock and rolled his eyes as he picked up Hazel and his bags. 

“Don’t do that again.” He said it sternly but his faint smile cause it to lose the effect and Hazel giggled.

They carried the bag home in the cab and they stopped three blocks away from home at Central Park and took a walk. Nico places all his bags in a backpack he’d taken with him and he carried it on his back as he carried Hazel in his arms. She hung from his neck and when he put her down she skipped ahead of his and tried to catch the falling snow on her tongue. She saw a hot chocolate stand.

“Nico! Can we please?!”

Nico sighed fondly at her and walked alongside her. “Just one cup, Hazel.”

They both ordered double chocolate hot chocolate and Hazel sat with Nico on one of the benches as they drank hot chocolate. 

Nico thought that maybe they’d be hard to get along with each other, that years of being away from home would make Hazel resent him. But she was easy to love and she loved easily and Nico admired her for that. She sat with all of her curly light hair peeking out from her winter hat and she curled into the scarf to hide her face from the biting cold and she swung her legs happy. She was good, good in ways Nico had never considered himself to be. But she loved him, she loved him unconditionally and Nico was hit with how much that meant to him. She was good and Nico was not and it made Nico love her more. 

When they were finished they walked the rest of the way back to the apartment, Hazel humming happily beside him and swinging their mitten clad hands together. 

He decided to speak. “Thank you for the thing at the mall, Hazel.”

Hazel looked up at him and smiled wide. “So you’ll do it? You’ll kiss Jason under the mistletoe?”

Nico chuckled and sighed. “Things like that take time, Hazel.”

She smiled and hummed. “As long as you’re happy.”

He looked at her for a moment with a worried look in his eyes. “And you are too?”

Hazel turned her innocent gaze to him. “Huh?”

Nico gulped. “You’re happy, right?”

Hazel held up her second cup of hot chocolate (Nico was weak and could not be held accountable for being utterly defenseless against Hazel’s pleading eyes) and she twirled around like a ballerina and giggled. 

“This is the most fun I’ve had in my whole entire life!”

Nico laughed and looked up to see that they had arrived home. He pulled his keys out, picked up Hazel, and they both went up to the apartment. 

When they opened the door the smell of spices wafted and Nico looked into the kitchen to find Will and Reyna cooking. Reyna was working on a pasta of some sort and Will was cooking chicken and sauce. Hazel smiled at them.

Reyna looked over and smiled as she wiped her hands on her apron and helped Hazel onto a chair. 

“How did it go today?”

Hazel grinned widely and Nico smiled at her.

“It went good.” Nico said.

“It went great!” Hazel said. 

She continued when Reyna continued to look at her. 

“We went shopping because Nico needed gifts but he got me lots of toys because I asked him and then we saw Santa! And Nico liked Santa’s elf and wanted to kiss him and-”

“Wait, wait,” Will said, “sorry, sweetie, but what was this about Nico liking one of Santa’s elves?”

Hazel giggled. “His name was Jason and he was dressed as an elf, but everyone knows elves aren’t real. But he was helping Santa and so I asked Santa to get Nico a nice boyfriend for Christmas.”

Will and Reyna guffawed as Nico rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes, it’s very funny.”

Will wiped tears from his eyes as he continued mixing the chicken and sauce. “And what happened next, Hazel?”

Hazel smiled smugly. “He gave Nico a phone number.”

Will high fived her and Reyna smiled at her. “You, Hazel, are a commendable girl and I am glad you stand with women.”

Hazel took that compliment seriously and beamed at Reyna. 

Reyna smiled. “What happened next?”

Hazel smiled. “Well then we went to Central Park and played with the snow and we got hot chocolate and Nico gave me another one even though he said only one.”

She turned to smile at Nico and Nico smiled back at his sister.

Will laughed. “You’re brought to your knees by cute little girls. Who knew?”

Hazel grumbled at Will. “Hey! I’m not small! I’m seven whole years old.”

Reyna nodded. “A truly amazing feat, dear.”

Nico sighed and took plates out of the cupboard. “Anyway, it’s dinnertime. Not Criticize Nico time.”

Will, Reyna, and Hazel laughed and set to work setting the table. 

 

When Nico tucked Hazel in and got her ready for bed her eyes drooped sleepily. 

“I’m not even tired, Nico.” She protested as he laid her cozily in her bed.

He sighed and fluffed her pillows. “Just sleep, Hazel.”

He got up and Hazel called after him. “Hey, Nico?”

He turned and she was staring at him, pleading now. “Can you sleep with me? This bed is so big.”

Nico nodded and he pulled on his pajamas in the bathroom and went to lay with her in bed. They lay there for a while and Hazel splayed across his chest, fisting his shirt in her hands. 

“Hey, Nico?” She said faintly. He could feel wisps of her breath on his shirt.

“Yeah?” He whispered.

“I lied.” Hazel said.

“About what?”

“Well, I lied about two things.” Hazel said again.

“What were those lies, Hazel?”

She sighed. “I didn’t wish for you and Jason to kiss under the mistletoe for Christmas.”

He looked down at her as she struggled to stay awake. “What did you wish for?”

She tightened her fists. “I wanted a big brother. So I wouldn't be alone for Christmas.”

His heart stopped. It constricted so tight that he found it hard to breathe and when he got his breath back he sighed. 

“And what about that other lie?”

Hazel yawned. “I lied about you not having a superpower.”

He chuckled. “And what’s my superpower?”

Hazel smiled faintly as she responded, sleeping trying to pull at her. “You’re the best big brother in the world. That’s a superpower, isn’t it?”

Nico nodded. “Yeah, Hazel. It is.”

She sighed happily. “Good. You deserve the best, Nico. Love you.”

She began to snore and Nico wound his arms around her small body, determined to keep her safe from the things that could hurt her outside the warm covers of his bed. 

“Love you, too, kiddo.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for Christmas AUs! :D Thanks to everyone who contributed and don't forget to submit New Year's Headcanons and prompts and things! I am also taking things unrelated to the holidays!


	27. All You Need Is Love (Or How Navi Is Done With Jason's Shit)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wow so this is sooooooooo fucking late, but user Shion asked for a Legend of Zelda AU as well as SpiritWorlds and I am finally ready to deliver! I would like for everyone to know I know literally almost nothing about Legend of Zelda and everything I wrote is mostly made up except for the few things I know from when I played it like a bunch of years ago.
> 
> Or, in which Jason plays the flute (it's an ocarina dammit), cannot catch a fucking break from Navi, and Nico has misdirected affection and misplaced alliances

_**Prompt:** I would like a Legend of Zelda story where Nico is evil and always trying to impress Percy(who's like Ganondorf) and Jason is the cute hero of time and Nico simply can't kill him. That would be awesome_.

* * *

 

 

There are three things you must understand about Jason.

He hates chickens. He always has and after everything that has happened he always will.

He is not a regular Hyrulian person. This has always been a fact.

He has no idea why Navi couldn’t let him sleep in the morning everything happened.

It started like this, Navi woke him up to leave Hyrule to find an ancient tree.

“Jason! Wake up!” She said urgently.

He looked up at the fairy groggily. “What? Why?”

She flitted over his head nervously. “Something is wrong in Hyrule. We must go there. We have to go there and warn Princess Piper.”

Jason sighed and got up from his bed. “Navi, that could kill me.”

Navi flitted around his head. “Jason, you must go there. We both know you must.”

Jason couldn’t argue with her. Since he’d been young enough to live by himself in the village he was always set apart, always alienated and it was hard to live there when he knew he was to leave. But his people didn’t leave the forest. The forest gave them life and if he left it could very well kill him.

He sighed. “Okay, what do I need to get?”

Navi told him what he needed to get and he went and bought a wooden sword and shield and went to the edge of the forest he’d lived in his entire life.

“You know you’ll die, don’t you?” Reyna ask him, with sad fondness.

He nodded, “I have to go. The princess is in trouble.”

She sighed and reached into the satchel at her side and pulled out her gift to him.

“It’s an ocarina, made of glass. Perhaps it’ll help you.”

There were so many things Jason wanted to tell her. Like how he knew she loved him and always had. He wanted to tell her that she could leave the forest with him and live something bigger than the life the forest had planned for them. He wanted to tell her that even though she loved him she could move on, have a life that revolved around her own interests instead of just working in the village and pretending that her forlorn glances at him weren’t just that.

Instead he went with the easiest choice, “Good-bye.”

He walked away, his heart just a little bit heavy, and the glass ocarina tucked safely away in his belt. He never made it to the ancient tree after all.

When he walked to the edge of the forest, having long gone left the village behind, he looked at Navi.

“What happens now?”

Navi flitted past the boundary of the forest.

“You take your first step out of the forest, and we travel to save the princess.”

Jason looked down at where his feet couldn’t move forward, couldn’t bring himself to take this last step.

“Just one step, right?”

Navi flitted. “Yes. But be warned, Jason Grace, Ganondorf has a formidable minion who will hunt you down.”

Jason sighed. “And kill me, right?”

He didn’t need to be up close to know that Navi had nodded.

He steeled himself and took his step.

And nothing happened and suddenly he felt stronger and he breathed in, somehow the air tasting different.

“I got past the forest!” He exclaimed.

Navi flew a yard ahead of him.

“Good, Jason! Now we have to hurry! Or Ganondorf will get to Princess Piper first!”

 

Jason and Navi stopped in the town just outside of Hyrule castle to buy a new sword and a Hylian shield. Jason thought the sharp imperial gold and glimmering shield were a serious upgrade from the wooden crap he’d previously used to fight off an orc or two. He then was forced to sneak around the Hyrule castle gardens to find Piper and warn her.

“This is ridiculous.” Jason whispered at Navi as they made it past the fifth guard.

He looked to see if the coast was clear before he ran down the hall.

“What’s ridiculous?” Navi whispered back.

Jason was nearly to Piper’s room. “I mean, I’m about to sneak into the princess’s room and it took me, what, fifteen minutes? No wonder you’re worried the princess in trouble.”

Navi led Jason into the room when no one could see them.

“Oh!” Piper exclaimed from her spot by the window, she was wielding a knife.

Jason stopped right in his tracks and shut the door.

Piper stepped forward quickly, knife to Jason’s throat before he could even reach for the hilt of his sword.

“Who are you and how did you get here? I am under constant guard.”

Jason made a face and sighed. “About that. . . Your guards are really under qualified. And my name is Jason.”

Piper sighed and pulled the knife from his throat.

“Thanks. I’m really allergic to knives on my throat.” Jason said.

Piper sat down on her bed. “I only spared you because I knew you’d come for me.”

“You did?”

Piper nodded and sheathed her knife. “Just as I know that soon Ganondorf will come for me and you can’t stop it.”

Jason looked at Navi then at Piper. “What? What do you mean?”

Piper began to put things in her belt pouches. “I have things to give you, and when I do, I will send you away because when Ganondorf storms this castle, the Ghost King will leave no survivors.”

Jason sighed. “Who is this Ganondorf guy? I would kind of like to know who he is before I beat him up.”

Piper sighed. “He’s a king who was slighted when I turned down his proposal for marriage. And he’s come to seize the castle once and for all. He wants to rule all of Hyrule.”

Jason sighed. “Okay. How do we prevent you from being kidnapped?”

Piper shook her head. “You cannot stop that, Jason. I have to face Ganondorf alone. I may be able to barter for the lives of the kingdom if I do.”

Jason shook his head. “We can find another way to get everyone out of this safely.”

Navi flitted nervously around Jason’s head. “We can’t, Jason. Even as we speak Ganondorf and the Ghost King have made it halfway across the realm and intend to draw blood from anyone who stands in their way.”

Piper shook her head and reaching into her boudoir to give Jason sheets of paper and a potion in a glass vial. He promptly stuck it on his belt securely.

“Those papers will give you pardon when you need to gain access to certain things on your quest. And one of those is a song that will help you defeat the Ghost King.”

Jason looked at the music on the sheet. “But this is for an ocarina. What can an ocarina do for me against this terrible bad guy?”

Piper put a hand on his shoulder. “Jason, outside of that forest your ocarina has many magical and mystical powers. Learn to weild them or you will not survive against the Ghost King.”

Jason gulped. “Right, not foreshadowing at all. Great. So, I have to leave, catch up to you and this Ganondorf dude, defeat a Ghost King which sounds about as fun as walking across hot coals, and then save Hyrule before everyone dies and Ganondorf gains power? Am I missing anything?”

Piper shook her head. “Not a thing.”

Jason sighed. “First day out of the forest and a guy can’t catch a break.”

A bell began to ring loudly from the outer walls of the castle. Piper whipped her head around to look out the wide doors into the garden and out into the castle perimeter. Fires had begun to burn and a black smoke began to creep closer to the main tower.

Piper turned to Jason with wide eyes and Jason could swear that before a fierce determination covered her face he could see flickers of fear.

“You have to leave out through the garden the way you came before Nico or Ganondorf find you. Hurry!”

He walked forward and Piper caught his arm. He whirled around and from down the hall of the castle he could hear shouting. She ran over to her desk and began to write a note that she left in a crevice of the wall, presumably for someone.

She looked at him with serious eyes. “I will be waiting for you, Grace. Do not let the kingdom of Hyrule fall. This is in your hands now.”

He nodded and sprinted out the door. Just as he dodged out of sight he heard the doors to Piper’s room slam open. He ducked behind a hedge and watched as a barricade of men clad in obsidian armor seized her. He almost reached out, but Navi held him back.

A man with many medals and dressed in navy blue armor walked into the room. He wore a helmet fashioned to look like the head of a minotaur. When he took of the fearsome mask he had short dark brown hair and deep green eyes. They looked cold, malicious. Jason was clad that Piper knew how to defend herself, or he would have feared for her life with a man who looked like he did. He sneered at Piper.

“Princess.”

Piper spat in his face and Jason silently cheered for her.

“Ganondorf. Couldn’t get daddy to give you the kingdom so you’ve come to steal mine?”

Ganondorf turned to the guards that held her roughly by both of her arms. “Make her kneel before me.”

She grunted and fought and kneed one of the men before Ganondorf gripped her by the neck. She made a grunt of protest but Ganondorf simply let out a low growled.

“I said kneel.”

And he pulled out a dagger from his side and sliced at her calves. Piper, to her credit, didn’t cry out. She grunted in pain, and eventually fell into a kneeling position.

“You know,” Ganondorf said, conscendingly, “you should have just married me. We would have been excellent rulers. And I wouldn’t have had to sieze your castle.”

Piper looked up at him and she spat at his feet. “I never would have married you. Besides, you won’t succeed in this quest, Ganondorf. Already I have a hero coming for me. He will come and defeat you and the Ghost King.”

In a flurry of black smoke a man in simply black armor appeared next to Ganondorf. He had dark brown hair that fell softly on his shoulders and tired eyes that seemed cold. But not like Ganondorf’s. His seemed empty.

“What is this about defeating me?” The Ghost King drolled.

Piper frowned at him. “My hero will defeat you. I have given him the song he needs to sing to kill you. He has the ocarina of time.”

Ganondorf snarled at her. “Lies!”

“Truths! Even as you idiots stand here my hero has made his way halfway across the kingdom to your lair.”

Ganondorf cursed and turned to the Ghost King. “Find this blasted hero! I want his dead body at my table by night fall!”

The Ghost King bowed. “As you wish, my lord.”

Ganondorf turned to the guards that held Piper in her kneeling position. “Take this wretch and bind her and carry her to the lair.”

They had begun to pull out rope when Piper turned to him. “Wait!”

The guards froze and Ganondorf turned to her. “What?”

She gulped and stood, albeit wobbly and weak. “I will go freely, if you spare my subjects.”

Ganondorf considered this before he turned to the guards. “Put her on the cart, search her for weapons.”

As they dragged her away she turned to him frantically. “Leave them! Leave them out of this, Per-”

Ganondorf slammed the doors and began to look around the room. “Guards! Help me search this room for any evidence of the hero! We must find him at once, as we all know Nico is wholly incompetent.”

Jason ducked out from the bush and broke for the secret entrance behind the hedges of the walls of the castle. He snuck out and as he ran he put the songs and notes in his pocket and broke out into a run. He ran for what seemed like ages until the castle was a bit in the distance. Jason stopped at a small pond for a drink and to rethink everything.

“We need a horse, Navi. How will we get a horse?”

Navi flitted around him. “Just passed this pond and hill there is a ranch owned by a couple. We can stop there for a horse. We can give them a pardon from Princess Piper.”

He walked past the hill and found, nestled in a small valley, a small ranch. Jason walked up to it and found a woman with golden hair and eyes and chocolate skin riding a horse. She looked breathless and happy as she galloped with the horse.

“Can I help you?” A man said from beside them. Jason jumped, but when he realized it was an innocent man with pale skin and budgy but tall build.

He pulled out a pardon from Piper and handed it to the man.

“Hi. I’m Jason. I have to get a horse. Quickly as you can manage.”

The man smiled at him. “Princess Piper is a wonderful princess and we’d be glad to help you. I’m Frank and that is Hazel.”

He inclined to the woman riding the horses.

She hopped off the horse and bounded off to meet them.

“Hi!” Hazel greeted them.

Frank turned to Hazel. “Hazel, this is Jason, he needs a horse quickly.”

Hazel smiled at him and waved him over to their stalls. “Sure! Can I ask what you’ll be using the horse for? It’ll help me pick one.”

Jason shuffled a bit. “Just a horse that doesn’t need much to eat and can travel far.”

Hazel pulled a gray horse from its stall. “You’ll be wanting Tempest for that. They’re a mighty powerful horse and you’ll get by with this great.”

Jason nodded and took the horse before he shuffled nervously and took the horse.

He was walking out of the ranch when Hazel ran up to him.

“Jason!”

He stopped and turned. Hazel stopped just a few feet away from him.

“Does this have to do with what happened at the castle this afternoon? Does it have to do with the Ghost King?”

Jason thought of perhaps lying, making it easier on everyone. Instead he just nodded.

Hazel let out a shocked breath. “I don’t. . . I don’t believe it. . . He did it. . .”

Jason sighed sadly. “Listen, I kinda have to go save the world. We’ll have this conversation when I come back, okay?”

Hazel nodded and Jason mounted Tempest. He began to trot away but Hazel called again.

“Jason!”

He turned around on the horse.

Hazel gulped, a worried look in her eyes. “What will you do when you find the Ghost King?”

Jason shrugged. “Hopefully, kill him.”

Hazel made a sound of distress, but Jason didn’t hear it because he’d begun to ride fast. Determined to keep Ganondorf’s damage to a minimum.

 

Jason was walking through the forests halfway to Ganondorf’s lair, looking for food, when he happened upon the Ghost King, alternately named Nico.

He was picking berries when suddenly a black smoke surrounded him.

He turned to find the man in the armor standing a few feet away.

“Jason Grace.”

He knew that when a man called you by your whole name and you’d never met them you should probably run. And Jason, in a moment of stupidity only remembered the man because he thought the Ghost King had a memorable face.

“Uh, yes?” He said.

The Ghost King pulled out a dagger from his belt. “I heard you have something of mine. A song. I need it back.”

Jason put his hand on the hilt of his sword. “See, I can’t do that.”

The Ghost King stepped closer. “I’ll take it from you the hard way if you won’t relenquish it.”

Jason pulled out his ocarina and hoped Navi could help him through this. She whispered and flitted around his hands as he blew into the ocarina. As he played Nico began to crumple over in pain, gasping for breath and clutching his sides.

When he was doubled over Jason took his sword and stopped playing.

“You’re not doing anything. Piper said I have to destroy you.”

Nico looked up at him and faded into black mist. The sword slipped from Jason’s grip and he blew into the ocarina. Navi helped him again and together they forced Nico back into a solid form.

“That’s a flute.” Nico said, slightly shocked and slightly embarrassed for Jason. He was a few feet away again.

“It’s not a flute!” Jason grumbled.

“Does it have holes?” Nico asked.

“Yes.” Jason frowned as he answered.

“Do you blow air into it?” Nico asked.

“Yes.”

“And when you blow on it does it produces high notes and music?” Nico asked, one eyebrow raised.

Jason shrugged, still disgruntled. “I guess.”

Nico sighed. “It’s a flute.”

“It’s not a flute!” Jason nearly shouted.

Nico sighed and glowered at Jason. “This is foolish. I will leave now, but know that the next time I see you, Hero of Hyrule, you will die.”

“And here I thought we’d really had a connection.” Jason replied snarkily.

The Ghost King vanished in a pillar of smoke and Navi lifted the ocarina to Jason’s lips but he just swatted it away.

“Leave it. We’ll save that for when we get out of this forest. We have six days days until we get to Ganondorf’s lair.”

They walked out of the forest the next day and as Jason and Navi, along with Tempest, were riding in open fields a black pillar of smoke appeared in front of them. Tempest reared and pawed at the ground in anxiety and Jason hopped off his horse to find the Ghost King standing there.

“I’m starting to think you’re following me.” Jason jested.

The Ghost King glowered at him. “You still have something I need.”

Jason pulled the paper from his belt. “What’s the big deal with this song? It’s just a song.”

“That could kill me.”

Jason shrugged. “But why? Might as well tell me since we both know I’ll use it eventually.”

Nico glowered at him. “It was the song Orpheus sang to open the doors of the Underworld to get his beloved Eurydice back from the dead. If that song is sung I will be overwhelmed by the spirits of the dead and consumed.”

“Yikes.”

Nico gave Jason a hateful look. “Yikes, indeed.”

Jason considered Nico and considered the paper. “You’ve killed people. Why shouldn’t I play that song right now?”

Nico took a step forward, dark clouds and smoke gathering quickly at his feet. “Because you are a hero, Jason Grace. And you wouldn’t kill me if I begged for it.”

Navi whispered in Jason’s ear. “Now, Jason! Before he kills you.”

Jason lifted the ocarina but before he could do so much as blow a note smoke was surrounding him and suddenly he felt chains yanking him to the ground. He looked down to see that his feet were being held to the ground by shadows and the same black shadows reached down and pulled his hands apart and pulled him flush to the ground. Around him skeletons rose from the ground to greet him, pulling him closer to the earth and crawling all over him. Jason kicked and struggled only to have more of the skeletal warriors hold him down.

Jason grunted against the restraints but they only gripped him tighter as he struggled.

The Ghost King walked over and ripped the paper from his weak hand.

“I’ll be taking that.”

He vanished and with him so did the restraints, and despite having lost one of the very few things he could use to defeat the Ghost King and Lord Ganondorf, he could only think about how the Ghost King hadn’t kept his promise to kill Jason.

 

Nico went back to Ganondorf with the sheet music.

“I got the music.”

In his throne the green-eyed man looked menacing, cruel, but the Ghost King had been eager to serve as always.

“And what about the boy, Nico? It’s been four days and you have yet to bring him to me!”

Nico bowed his head. “I apologize, lord.”

Ganondorf rose from his throne, slow and sinister. He stood in front of Nico, staring straight into his eyes and Nico tried to stare back in kind. But Ganondorf’s stare was sharp and threatening and when he narrowed his eyes Nico knew he was angry. Ganondorf slapped him. It was hard, sharp, and when Nico felt his head turn from the sheer force of it he could taste blood in his mouth.

Ganondorf looked at him softly suddenly, and put a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t want to hurt you, you know that, Nico. But I am upset that you have yet to do what I asked. You don’t want to disappoint me, do you?”

Nico shook his head slowly, not trusting himself to speak and he couldn’t bring himself to speak either. He looked over to where Piper was bound on the floor next to Ganondorf’s throne.

Ganondorf looked over to see what he was staring at and sighed. “Don’t mind her. She’s insolent. Now,” Ganondorf turned to Nico again, “have you seen the boy?”

Nico was still looking at Piper, and her eyes went wide. She shook her head quickly, frantically.

Nico turned back to Ganondorf. “He’s not a boy, my lord. He’s a man.”

Ganondorf nodded, seeming to process that information. “And what does he look like?”

Beautiful. Heroic. Good. “He’s blond, with blue eyes, sir.”

Ganondorf sighed. “That could be anyone. Continue your hunt. I want his head on a platter, do you understand me?”

Nico nodded wordlessly, and as he walked away Ganondorf seized his wrist. “And Nico?”

Nico turned to him.

Ganondorf gave him a cold and triumphant stare. “Bianca would have wanted this.”

Nico nodded and vanished.

 

Jason had been traveling for three days and had set up camp for the night when he heard something in the brush right by his campfire. He gripped his sword, pulled it from its sheath and stood prepared. When he heard voices and steps and someone appear through the brush. He lunged his sword only to have the person block the blow and take his sword from him.

In front of him stood a blonde woman with gray eyes, dressing in royal uniform and standing tall as though she were fifteen feet rather than five.

“You should watch where you swing that sword, Jason Grace.”

He sighed. “Another one of you? What do you want this time? How do you know my name?”

The woman handed him back his sword. “I am Annabeth Chase. Head of the Royal Guard and consort of the princess.”

Jason had heard horror stories about this woman, how once she had single-handedly defeated an entire army when the ruler of the army had taken the king and queen hostage.

“Is it true that you defeated that entire army?”

Annabeth sighed. “I had help.”

Jason turned to look behind her. “Yeah, speaking of help, who was with you?”

Frank and Hazel appeared from behind the brush and Annabeth shrugged. “The girl Hazel knew you, and she is an excellent swordsman along with dabbling in magic. And Frank was once one of the finest archers in the land.”

They waved as though they were an innocent and unassuming couple. Jason shivered. He turned to Annabeth.

“And why did you come find me?”

Annabeth pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and Jason recognized that from the slot in the wall in the castle. “Piper left me a note. She said I should look for you. That you would be the key to everything.”

Jason sighed. “Yeah, people keep mentioning that.”

Annabeth folded the paper and tucked it away. “Piper is betrothed to me, and I am obligated by land, alliance, and heart to find her and rescue her.”

Jason shrugged and went to sit by the fire. “Be my guest.”

Hazel, Frank, and Annabeth all sat by the fire with Jason and as Annabeth pulled out food and prepared it Jason turned to Hazel.

“You seemed interested in the Ghost King when I last talked to you. Did you know him or something?”

Hazel exchanged looks with Annabeth and Frank.

Annabeth cleared her throat. “Jason, what exactly do you know about the Ghost King?”

Jason shrugged. “He can control dead things, he works with Ganondorf, his name is Nico, I think.”

Annabeth and Hazel shook their heads.

Hazel sighed and stared into the fire. “That’s true. But did you know that Nico used to be the main supporter of the king and queen?”

Jason shook his head.

Hazel nodded. “He and I, we’re siblings. Our father was the main council member the king and queen went to for decisions. I was the product of an affair, but when my mother died Nico’s mother and father took me in.”

Jason watched her eagerly.

She continued. “Hades and his wife died twelve years ago, carriage accident. And when they died Ganondorf came. He was nice back then, or at least, he had tricked us into thinking he was. He seduced Bianca away, convinced her to run away from the kingdom she loved to live with him in his lair. Nico ran after them.

“Well, he hadn’t known that Ganondorf had returned her to the kingdom, had taken her back because he didn’t want her, and when she went back to the kingdom the king and queen got there before Nico could, and had her executed for treason. Nico watched them behead his oldest sister, screaming and crying, and he struggled to help her, but back then he didn’t have his powers, and she died. Ganondorf visited Nico the day after the ritual rites had been done and convinced him to leave me behind to go against the king and queen as revenge.”

Jason suddenly felt bad for the Ghost King, imagining being young and watching the people you called family and the place you call home take away from you the most important thing in your life. It had obviously been a ploy by Ganondorf to get Nico to join him, and Jason wondered how many people Ganondorf had ruined in his bloodthirsty pursuit of the crown.

Annabeth frowned and sharpened her blades as she spoke. “I used to be in love with him. What an idiot I was.”

Jason turned to her in shock. “You what?”

Annabeth didn’t dare look up from where she was sharpening her daggers. “Despite what it may seem like, once Ganondorf was capable of such things. I knew him back when his name wasn’t Ganondorf. He was not always this way. But years of being a hero and never getting appreciated made him bitter.”

Jason looked at her, hoping she’d go on, and she did.

“It was Luke, Thalia, Ganondorf, and I. We were the heroes of the kingdom. Thalia left to join a band of virgin maidens, and their leader. And after she left things began to fall apart. Luke became bitter, mad that the kingdom hadn’t given us our dues. We were arguing more amongst ourselves. Back then Ganondorf and I didn’t care. It was reward enough to be a hero, but Luke got greedy. Once, we went to some far away kingdom, and Luke had stormed the castle, killing the king and queen and their daughter, Silena, he kidnapped her, and barricaded himself away with all the gold in the kingdom. We went to save the princess, and just as we were, Luke slit her throat, and then killed himself.

“Ganondorf held his brother, because for all intents and purposes, Luke was his brother, and he loved him, and he held his brother in arms as he died. Ganondorf wasn’t the same after that. He ran away to live in a dark mountain, blaming the kingdom that bred us.”

Annabeth sharpened her blade more fiercely. “But he got it wrong. It was Luke. Luke did this to himself, and when he got _infected_ with greed and power he took what he wanted. Per- Ganondorf twisted the events to fit his selfish needs. Silena wasn’t even eighteen yet. She was so young, and Luke killed her because he wanted _money_ and _power_.”

Jason sighed and looked back at the food over the fire and suddenly lost his appetite.

Hazel sighed, and Frank took her hand as a sign of comfort.

“Wait, but the Ghost King? Can’t he be saved?”

Annabeth shook her head, sheathing her daggers. “No. He’s killed people. People like that are monsters.”

Jason shook his head. “No, but he hasn’t killed me. I’ve seen him twice and he hasn’t killed him.”

Annabeth frowned, clearly confused, and went for a book in her satchel. “That wouldn’t make sense. Every indirect account says he’s killed enemies, left no survivors.”

Jason shrugged, that question still rattling around in his brain about why the Ghost King left him alive.

Annabeth sighed and put the book away. “If we can reason with Nico, I’d like to,” she looked sadly into the fire, “it would be nice to save just one hero.”

 

Jason woke up in the middle of the night to go get wood for the fire. He had wandered out further than expected when he heard a twig snap behind him. He turned around quickly, peering through the dark to see what was there, and when Nico appeared Jason jumped, and dropped his wood. He cursed and bent down to pick it all up. Nico actually helped him.

“Sorry.” Nico said, even though he didn’t sound sorry at all.

Jason put them in a pile at his feet and stood. “What are you doing here, Nico?”

Nico glowered at him. “Where did you hear that name?”

Jason shrugged. “Hazel told me.”

Nico cursed and glowered at Jason. “I’ve been sent to kill you.”

Jason shook his head. “You won’t do it.”

Nico pulled out his sword from its sheath and pressed the tip of the sword against Jason’s chest. “What makes you think I won’t?”

Jason shrugged. “A feeling. You’ve never actually killed anyone, have you?”

Nico’s hand faltered. “Who told you that?”

Jason sighed. “That black smoke you travel with, it appears in battle. You just transport people far away enough that they never wander into the battle again, making it look like they died, when really they’re just far away.”

Nico frowned at him and stepped closer to Jason, pressing the sword to his throat. “I won’t let some petty hero slander me.”

Jason looked right into his eyes, and for a moment he could swear Nico’s expression wavered.

“You were a hero once upon a time, Nico.”

“I was an idiot.”

Jason shook his head. “I don’t think you were. That’s why you still don’t kill people. You want to be saved, Nico.”

Nico’s frown deepened. “I don’t need saving, you foolish hero.”

“Then why haven’t you killed me?” Jason asked, his voice soft.

“Jason!” Annabeth called.

Nico turned quickly and turned back to Jason. His expression suddenly looked pained. “I will have to fight you. You have to know that.”

Jason took the sword at his throat and forced it away from him, and Nico didn’t fight it.

“Maybe you don’t have to fight me, Nico. It’s not too late to do the right thing.”

“Jason!” Annabeth called and her voice seemed closer.

Nico shook his head. “We all have our roles to play.”

Jason took his free hand. “You can still be the hero of this play, Nico.”

“Jason!” Annabeth called.

Jason let go of his hand and picked up the wood. He looked at Nico. “Think about it. I think maybe you want to save yourself as much as anybody.”

Annabeth came into the clearing just after the whisp of black smoke flew away with the wind.

“What was that?” She asked.

He shrugged. “Just the wind.”

She gave him a look like she didn’t believe him, but didn’t press it further.

When they were were a day away from reaching Ganondorf’s lair Jason was walking into the forest for firewood again. This time it was mid-day and he jumped again when Nico appeared.

“Dammit! Do you not have any other method of trying to have a secret rendevous in the forest? Should put a bell on you.”

Navi was with him this time and she flitted around Jason’s head nervously. “Jason, he’s evil! He’ll cross you! Don’t trust him.”

Jason swatted at her and she flew away, to leave him alone, and Nico sighed.

He looked like hell, his jaw swollen and his right eye was bruised and dark purple. Jason dropped his firewood and ran the few feet of distance to help Nico. He touched Nico’s face tenderly.

“What happened to you?”

Nico gave a humorless chuckle and his lip looked to be split. “Was trying to follow your advice, and be a hero.”

“What?” Jason said, shocked and worried.

“I tried stalling Ganondorf from storming Hyrule, told him I had seen you, the Hyrule Hero. He got upset that I hadn’t killed you.”

“Upset? Nico, he beat you to a bloody pulp.”

Nico shrugged and Jason felt his face, examining the damage, but he gave Jason a sad smile. “Thank you. For doing that.”

Nico shrugged. “Had to finally turn the tides. I don’t like living in that dark mountain with Ganondorf.”

Jason sighed and pulled out a rag and his healing potion from his belt. He dabbed the cloth and softly applied it to Nico’s face. He smiled more genuinely at Nico.

“Can’t imagine that you would. You did the right thing, Nico.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah.”

Jason continued applying the potion silently for a moment and he could feel Nico’s breath on his face, and for the moment their eyes met and Jason felt himself turn bright red. He tried to look away and pay attention to Nico’s face, but he found his eyes had wandered to Nico’s lips.

He cleared his throat and stepped away, putting his things away and effectively killing the mood that had passed. “So, you never did tell me why you never killed me?”

“Jason!” Hazel called.

Nico turned instinctively to the sound of Hazel’s voice. Jason turned and then looked back at Nico.

“You could meet her. She misses you.”

Nico shook his head. “It’s better I see her after we save Hyrule. She’ll be proud of me then.”

“She already is.”

Nico frowned at Jason. “She’s proud of a brother who betrayed his kingdom and has, for all intents and purposes for the public, killed whole armies?”

Jason sighed. “She knows you’re good. She knows you would do the right thing.”

“Jason!” Hazel called.

Jason looked at Nico, and Nico looked at wherever Hazel’s voice had come with a fond sadness.

“Not yet,” he turned to Jason, “When you get to Ganondorf’s castle he’ll have a whole army ready. I will give him news that you’re coming in the next day, otherwise he’ll figure out I’ve been helping you.”

Jason stepped forward and took Nico’s face softly in both his hands. “Do what you need to. Just stay alive. We have to save Hyrule together.”

Nico nodded. He stepped back, the black smoke already swirling around his feet. “Be careful, Jason. Ganondorf isn’t merciful, and he won’t hesitate to kill you when he sees you.”

Jason nodded and Nico blew away into the morning sun in a puff of smoke.

Jason carried the wood back to the sight and Hazel stood at the edge of the clearing. “Oh, Jason, there you are! I was calling you.”

Jason smiled at her. “Just went to collect wood."

 

They got to Ganondorf’s lair a day earlier than expected. They got there mid-day and when they found a hill a few yards away they all prepared their weapons and planned.

Annabeth pulled out a sheet. “I think with Hazel’s magic and her manipulation of mist and shadows, we can sneak into the castle virtually undetected.”

Hazel shook her head, sharpening her blades and looking for all the world like the fiercest warrior. Jason shivered just a little at her determination.

“Frank, you will be in charge of rescuing Piper. You are better at long range battle with your bow and arrows, but for this we can’t use this.”

Frank nodded, sheathing a single sword.

Annabeth sighed sadly. “I’ll handle Ganondorf. He’s my responsibility.”

Jason wondered how hard this must be, to face her friend like she had faced Luke with him so many years ago.

She shook her head as if to shake out the thoughts from her mind. “Jason, you’ll handle the Ghost King.”

He nodded and they all looked over the hill. Annabeth sighed.

She turned to everyone. “Ready?”

They all nodded and Hazel walked forward. She made flourished hand motions, but as Jason, Annabeth, and Frank all walked with her and they walked past the gates of the lair none of the guards seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary.

They walked through the jagged stone carved corridors and into the throne room. Jason closed the door behind him and barricaded it with locks and Frank put an enchanted lock on it.

When they all turned around two dozen heavily armed guards stood between Ganondorf and their group.

Ganondorf snarled at them. “Welcome.”

He stood in front of his throne and Nico stood still and bored beside him. “Thanks to my loyal and trusted companion, I’ve been expecting you for a while.”

Jason looked over to Nico and tried to convey his worry with his eyes. He looked at the foot of the throne to find a weak looking Piper sprawled there.

Annabeth must have seen her because she stepped forward, sword in one hand and dagger in another. “Let her go, you incoriggible cretin!”

Ganondorf tisked. “You used to love me, Annabeth.”

“I was an idiot.”

Ganondorf sighed. “Really? After all those adventures and after we saved the world so many times, and you hate me now?”

Annabeth glowered at him. “You became exactly like Luke.”

Ganondorf flew across the room and with a sharp sound he slapped Annabeth across the face. “I am nothing like Luke! Luke was an idiot, and he had such small plans.”

Annabeth rubbed her face. “What do you mean?”

Ganondorf sneered at her. “Do you think I’d stop with one kingdom? Once I take Hyrule it will be easy to take all the other realms. I want to have them all!”

Annabeth didn’t say anything.

Ganondorf turned his head to Jason and Jason began to inch away from his friends, trying as hard as possible to draw Ganondorf away so that their fight wouldn’t affect when those two dozen guards attacked his friends.

“Jason Grace,” oh brother, “ Hyrule’s hero.”

Jason shrugged. “Yeah.”

Ganondorf drew his sword. “Fight me, Hero of Hyrule. I want to see if I at least have a worthy opponent.”

He raised his sword and Jason dodged it as he pulled out his sword to block the second blow.

“Guards! Attack!” Ganondorf called.

Jason watched Annabeth charge right in, hacking and slicing and moving a dexterity that Jason could only in his wildest dreams wish for. Her curly blonde hair waved around as she fought, having broken from where she had tied it in a loose braid. She hacked away and all the while kept her eyes closely on Piper at the foot of the throne, coming to. Frank was slicing with his word and Hazel was turning guards into salamanders left and right, and when something would lunge for Frank without him seeing it Hazel parried it with magic and when something lunged for Hazel Frank parried it with a sword. They worked in perfect tandem, and Jason couldn’t see him but from the way guards would suddenly vanish and there was black smoke, Jason knew Nico was around, helping them.

Ganondorf delivered devastating blow after devastating blow to Jason, who tried so hard to parry them and while Hazel and Frank fought the last of the guards Annabeth ran over and began to try freeing Piper from her chains.

She first took away the cloth tied around Piper’s mouth to keep her quiet.

Piper looked up at Annabeth and smiled tiredly. “My love, I knew you’d come.”

Annabeth smiled at her and brushed the knotted and messy hair out of her face. “Of course I would come. You’re hurt. I’ll help you.”

Annabeth sat Piper up and worked on her chains, but they wouldn’t rip and Annabeth cursed when she found that they chains were enchanted.

“Hazel!” Annabeth called.

Hazel ran over, and Nico turned into his physical form. He stood right beside Frank who yelped and accidentally, but not really, stabbed a guard. There were only five of them now.

He smiled at Frank. “Ready to finish the job?”

Frank looked at him, shocked for a moment, before he nodded and steeled his expression. They lunged and fought together while Ganondorf had his singular focus on Jason. Jason had a cuts on his legs and arms and one on his lip, trying to combat Ganondorf, but feeling his limbs slowing down.

“You’re weak, Jason Grace! And your kingdom will fall to me.”

“Percy, that is enough! You’ll kill him!” Annabeth called, pleading now, desperate.

“That is the objective.” Percy snarled.

“Wait, wait, wait-” Jason put up his hands in a time out signal.

Percy huffed angrily, his sword falling to his side for a moment.

“What?” He growled.

Jason stood there for a moment.

“Your real name is. . . Percy?”

Percy growled at him. “We already went over this!”

Jason nodded. “No, no, I know, I mean, I got that. But Percy? What’s the deal with that?”

Percy sighed angrily. “My name is Perseus and my mother named me! That’s the deal. Now can we please get back to this battle?!”

Jason just shook his head in shock. “Your name is Percy? For real?”

Percy nodded his head.

Jason shook his head. “No, I mean, give me a sec. Your mom actually held you in her arms and named you Perseus? That happened?”

“We’ve gone over this!” He growled.

Piper huffed from where she sat on the ground, tied up while Annabeth and Hazel worked to free her. “Jason, can you please let it go?!”

Jason shook his head. “Oh, yeah, right, gotta save the princess of Hyrule.”

Percy growled at him and lunged with his sword and Jason dodged it before he made the time out signal again.

“I’m sorry but I am just totally not processing this. Your name is actually Percy?”

Percy, Nico, Annabeth, and Piper groaned.

“Yes! Yes, okay?!” Percy growled and yelled.

Jason shrugged. “I mean, I get why you named yourself Ganondorf. That’s a pretty evil sounding name.”

Percy began tapping his foot impatiently.

Jason made gestures with his hands. “I mean, Ganondorf, I’m scared of, but Percy? No, who would ever be scared of a guy named Percy?”

Percy growled at him. “Are you done?!”

Jason shook his head back into focus, into battle mode. “Yeah, yeah, sorry.”

Jason had been able to recharge a bit with the banter, but not by much and by the time Percy delivered his fifth blow, which sliced Jason’s arm,  Jason fell to the ground weakly, his sword clattering and falling away from him.

Navi flitted around his head, nervous and sad.

“Get up, Jason! You have to save Hyrule!” She whispered.

Percy raised his sword and Annabeth reach out, but knew she wouldn’t be able to reach Jason in time, and Jason looked up to find the shining glint of Percy’s sword before it delivered the final blow.

As it came down there was a pillar of smoke and out of it came Nico, his black blade blocking the attack, and he forced Percy backward.

Percy staggered. “Nico?! How dare you defy me?!”

Nico delivered a rapid succession of blows, lightning fast, even faster than Annabeth. “Like this. I was so tired of living in your shadow!”

Strike.

“You’re an emotionally manipulative bastard.”

Strike.

“You betrayed all your friends and my own sister and got her and them killed.”

Strike.

“You abused me!”

Strike. Block.

Percy snarled as he began to deliver blows back. “I was protecting you! I have always protected you!”

Strike.

“From what?! The only thing I ever needed to be protected from was you!”

Nico delivered three more blows, one of them to Percy’s abdomen and Percy doubled over, howling in pain.

Nico stared down at him. “You were a hero, you had everything, and you were so worried about having more you forgot what being a hero meant.”

Percy snarled, but before he could say anything more he disappeared in a flurry of black smoke along with all the men left in the lair. And the army outside.

Nico stared at the spot where Percy had been, glowering, until he heard coughing and ran over to where Jason lay on the ground, coughing weakly.

Nico pulled the potion from Jason’s belt and made Jason ingest it. Jason coughed weakly but after he swallowed he wasn’t as pale and Nico was thankful for that.

Jason smiled faintly at him. “We saved Hyrule.”

Nico shook his head. “Your crazy hero complex saved Hyrule.”

Jason chuckled, but his laughs came out more like coughs. “You’re- You’re one to talk.”

Nico sighed fondly at him and caressed Jason’s face. “Go to sleep. You’ll need the rest, and we’re safe.”

Jason’s eyes slid closed, but he spoke faintly. “Everyone lived?”

Nico thought about Percy in the desert he had transported him to and how he and his army would be exiled there for years.

“Yeah, everyone lived.”

Jason fell limp in his lap and when Nico looked up Frank was next to him, giving him a small smile, and when he looked over Piper and Annabeth were wrapped in a loving embrace and Hazel was looking over at him, smiling sadly.

Piper, Annabeth, and Hazel walked over to where Nico sat with Jason’s head in his lap.

Piper looked down at Jason with sad and wide eyes. “Is he dead?”

Nico shook his head. “Just sleeping. He was weak from the battle.”

Annabeth regarded Nico with neutrality. “We have to to get back to Hyrule. And you will placed in custody of the Royal Guard, Nico di Angelo.”

Piper looked at Annabeth and sighed. “Now is not the time-”

Nico shook his head. “No, no, she’s right. I’ll go willingly,” he looked down at Jason, smile faint in his sleep, “just make sure he’s safe.”

 

When Jason woke up there was an annoyingly obvious lack of Nico in his room. He had assumed Nico would have been the first in the room when Jason was recovering.

Instead Hazel, Frank, Piper, and Annabeth were standing beside him.

He sat up and smiled at them. “Hey guys.”

Piper smiled at him. “I’m so glad you made it out of that alive.”

Jason nodded and then looked around. “Me too, but where’s Nico? Is he okay?”

Hazel momentarily sent a cold stare to Annabeth and Piper and Annabeth exchanged a glance.

“Jason, Nico is in trial as we speak. He’s being tried for treason against the throne.”

Jason sat up more erect now. “What?”

Annabeth sighed. “Nico killed people, Jason and while he may have saved the princess of -”

“No.” Jason shook his head.

Annabeth put a hand on Jason’s. “Jason, it’s already-”

“No. Annabeth, Nico never killed anyone.” Jason said frantically.

“What?” Annabeth asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Jason flipped over the cover and got out of his bed quickly, legs weak and wobbly.

“He never killed anyone, I have to tell the king and queen.”

Jason ran out of the room, his legs almost giving out several times, but he ran down the corridors, and when he finally burst into the throne room Nico was being taken away.

“Wait!” Jason called, frantic, and pulled at Nico’s chains. The guards raised their batons to beat Jason away but the king just raised his hand to stop them.

“Jason Grace, hero of Hyrule, what is the meaning of this?”

Jason shook his head, out of breath and feeling weak.

“Nico never killed anyone.”

The king and queen exchanged glances. “What?”

Jason sighed, trying to get his breath back.

“You know how he does the black mist thing? He never killed anyone. He was transporting them to nearby villages. Far away from the battles that took place. He never killed anyone. He was trying to spare them. You could look through all the villages in the kingdom and probably find them. I swear it.”

The king and queen turned to Nico. “You refused to speak on this matter. Is this true?”

Nico glanced at Jason and then turned to the king and queen. “Yes.”

There were murmurs from the court and Jason turned to find Annabeth, Piper, Frank, and Hazel standing behind a pillar. Piper was grinning and gave him a thumbs up and Annabeth looked shocked, but realization clear on her face. Hazel was grinning thankfully at Jason, and Frank smiled, glad everything worked out well.

The king and queen called silence to the court.

They presented Nico in front of the king and queen.

“Nico di Angelo,” The king bellowed, “for the valiant act of saving the princess of Hyrule, and saving our soldiers from the wrath of Ganondorf, you are hereby pardoned of your crimes.”

Nico let out a sigh of relief he hadn’t realized he’s breathed in and his chains were taken away. The court left the room and when it was empty Nico turned around to Jason, a snark smile on his face.

“You should be resting.”

Jason walked forward, just a hair away from Nico now. “I had to save you. I tend to do that a lot, you know?”

Nico rolled his eyes. “That’s not how I remember the battle with Ganondorf.”

Jason shook his head. “You’re egotistical. It’s a trait I hear all the greatest heroes have.”

Nico was about to say something but just as he opened his mouth Jason’s legs gave out and he fell forward, Nico staggering, but catching him all the same.

Jason looked down at his legs. “Sorry, still kind of weak.”

Nico looked into his eyes. “It’s fine.” He said softly.

Jason leaned in and gave him a chaste kiss. Nico kissed him back fervently, and Jason’s knees buckled this time.

Nico pulled away and sighed. “You know, you should rest.”

Jason shrugged. “I could. We did just save the entirety of the kingdom.”

Navi flitted into the room and flew around Jason’s head. “Jason, you saved Hyrule!”

Jason looked up at her. “Yeah,” he looked over at Nico and and smiled, “I guess we did.”

As they walked out of the throne room to meet their friends Nico turned to Jason. 

"Hey, do you think you could play that flute for me sometime?"

Piper could hear them down the hall, a slap, a protest, and, "It's not a flute, godammit!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooooh, so, I dabbled in changing character types, and did Dark!Percy for this one!  
> I would like for everyone reading to understand that I do not think Piper is a woman that needs to be saved at all, but she will be Hyrule's bisexual queen and this fit with this so oh well. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	28. Like You Imagined When You Were Young

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *Edited note* YOUR AUTHOR FUCKED UP AND DID NOT AT ALL THINK ABOUT HOW MUCH SHE LOVES THE SONG WILDEST DREAMS BY TAYLOR SWIFT AND HOW WELL IT GOES WITH THIS SONG DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT  
> In which Nico and Jason have always been meant to be and the author actually nearly cried writing this one even though it's so short.

_**Prompt:** you’ve only ever seen your soulmate in your dreams but you can never remember what they look like, the imaginary life you have with them picks up wherever it leaves off when you fall asleep again. but the dreams stop after you meet them, but you have no way of know who they are because you still can’t remember their face_

 

* * *

 

**_I said, "No one has to know what we do, "_ **   
**_His hands are in my hair, his clothes are in my room_ **   
**_And his voice is a familiar sound,_ **   
**_Nothing lasts forever but this is getting good now_ **

++++

 

 

Nico’s parents told him that the dreams were normal when he turned eight. They told him that one day he’d meet someone who he couldn’t remember and then one day when he was old enough, and in love enough, he’d finally find them and he’s remember them when he woke up. Nico’s parents had always been in love. They had dreamed about each other since their childhood and were one of the luckiest couples, because they had woken up and remembered each other each time.

At the time Nico had been terrified, worried about the kind of dreams that he would have. Worried that the person in his dreams wouldn’t like him. Nico worried they wouldn’t like Mythomagic. You know, the important issues. Days and Nights were spent in his eight year old youth thinking about the person that would show up in his dreams.

It turned out, Nico would only have nightmares. The month after his parents gave him that talk, Nico’s mother died. Bianca and Nico were in the car and when their mother had shielded them from the oncoming car, she’d died on impact. Everyday Nico would wake up in a cold sweat, imagining his mother’s body mangled and bloody, and he’d be screaming so loud that Bianca would come running into his room to comfort him. Bianca was eleven then. Their father tried to be present but most of the time he fell short because he didn’t know what to do with his children. Maria had, after all, wanted them most, and had prepared the most for them.

Nico learned when he was nine that Bianca didn’t have soulmate dreams. She had blackness, emptiness, and she was okay with that. Their father explained that she didn’t love people, that she wasn’t destined to fall in love with someone. She took it in stride and that year she left to become a feminist protester, with a girls’ only school. Their father had said a teary good-bye to her, and Nico begged her to stay, but she left, promising to visit as often as she could, and Nico accepted this, knowing he couldn’t depend on her for all the things in his life.

Maybe it was the stress no nearly-ten-year-old should have to ever experience, or the way he felt an emptiness in him that had begun to bud, but that night he had his first dream.

He woke up in a field. The field was a green land of tall grass and wheat that waved like golden waves. It grew to his knees and he looked around, curious as to how he got there. None of his dreams before now had been this vivid, or nice. For the last year Nico had only had nightmares.

He walked for a while and his legs should have felt a bit sore, but they didn’t. He felt good, light. He walked for a while until he looked over and found there was a boy in the distance. He ran forward, faster and faster, until he was a few feet away from the boy. The boy had hair the color of the wheat, golden and waved, and his skin was pale. For Nico everything was bathed in a dream-like sheet of golden sunlight. He thought about before Bianca left and his mother died and he thought that it must have looked like this in the real world at some point.

“Who are you?” Nico asked.

The boy turned around and he had a wide smile on his face. He looked innocent, enthusiastic. Nico hated it. “I’m your soulmate! We’re in a soulmate dream!”

Nico looked around, at the bluest sky he’d ever seen in his life, and the wheat that was the most golden he’d ever seen, and at the boy who shined golden and he knew that the boy was his soulmate, just like his mother had mentioned. Something about the way the sunlight caught in his hair and made a halo around him. The thoughts of his mother made him sad and the wheat began to wilt, dying around them rapidly.

The blond boy looked around, concerned and shocked.

“What’s wrong?”

Nico shrugged and sat, cross legged in the dying grass.

The boy sat beside him. “I’m Jason. What’s your name?”

The grass continued to die. “I’m Nico.”

Jason sighed and looked at Nico with bright blue and concerned eyes. “What’s wrong?”

Nico pulled a fistful of grass out of the ground. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Jason nodded as though he understood completely and Nico appreciated it.

Jason ran a hand over the grass that was dying and it immediately came back to life, as golden as his hair.

Nico turned to him. “So we’re soulmates?”

Jason smiled and nodded at him. “Yeah! I’m Jason Grace, I live in California with my momma!”

Nico watched him with a wary eye. “I live in New York City with my dad. I’m Nico di Angelo.”

Jason lay back on the ground and he looked up at the clouds. “So, what do we do?”

Nico shrugged and reached into his pocket to see if his cards were there and he smiled faintly when he saw it was his most powerful deck.

“We can play Mythomagic. . .” He offered.

Jason smiled brightly at him and sat up quickly. “No way! You have the Underworld Deck! That one’s the best!”

Nico’s smile grew a bit. “Yeah.”

They played a few games, talking about themselves awkwardly. Jason told Nico about his mother and how he had been taken away by his older sister, Thalia, to live with her friend Annabeth, and their family.

Nico didn’t talk much, he mostly listened to Jason go on about how Annabeth was twelve and two years older than the both of them, and she could remember her soulmate when she woke up. Jason’s hands flailed as he spoke and sometimes he would fall over, losing balance as he told a story and Nico would laugh faintly. He was still laughing faintly when he woke up that next day.

He didn’t tell his father about the dream mostly because he hadn’t seen him that week because his father was away on business. But Nico didn’t mind. He wanted to keep Jason Grace to himself even if he couldn’t, for the life of him, remember what he looked like when he woke up.

  


Three years later Nico had been much better off than if he had been alone. Sure Nico was alone for a while, but in his dreams, always in his dreams Jason was there.

Nico fell asleep early on Valentine’s Day when he was thirteen.

He sat in the still golden field. The cards of their unfinished go fish game lay there. but Nico also had a valentine he’d conjured from the one he’d bought in the real world, hoping one day he’d give Jason them all in reality.

He waited for two hours. Nico sat and waited and just as he was about to wake up, having lost hope and dejected, Jason appeared. Jason seemed breathless and red and he was gasping for breaths.

“Sorry!” Jason wheezed.

“I had a last minute track meet and then I ran all the way home so I could pass out as soon as I got home!”

Nico sighed fondly and gave him the valentine. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Jason looked down at it with wide eyes. “But I thought we weren’t going to get anything for each other. You don’t even like Valentine’s Day.”

Nico shrugged. “Hazel said it was a good idea and she said maybe it would be okay.”

Jason smiled widely at him, always with the smiling. “It’s brilliant.”

Jason looked down at the go fish game.

“I say we conjure up food, and maybe the treehouse, and watch movies.” Jason suggested.

The treehouse was Nico’s favorite place in the imaginable world. When Nico was eleven and had been bullied by kids at school he’d fallen asleep much later than Jason, because he couldn’t manipulate his looks, and he couldn’t hide his bruises from Jason. He’d fallen asleep and when he got there the golden wheat had died within seconds. Jason had seen his bruises and tried to heal him emotionally, and for the most part it worked but the grass still wilted and Nico had screamed and cried, angry that his life’s problems had bled into their comfortable world. Jason had imagined the treehouse and it appeared. Jason took him up the ladder, touching the grass as he went, bringing it to life, and they watched it grow impossibly tall from the window of the treehouse. Jason had smiled softly as him, showing him that there was always a place for healing, showing Nico that not everything had to wilt.

It was the first time Nico realized he was in love with Jason. With Jason’s golden hair being windswept from the light breeze in their dream world and his eyes bright blue and kind and Nico forgot all about the purple bruises on his body, and focused on the soft yet deep baritone of Jason’s voice. Nico was eleven when he stopped looking for a substitute in the real world for his friend. Nico didn’t realize it yet, but Jason Grace was the love of his life. Nico would fall asleep, looking forward to seeing the person he barely remembered, and one day when they had conjured the treehouse it had turned into the house Nico lived in when he was young. Nico remembered every single detail but only in his subconscious. They had both been so happy to find that out. It meant they were more steps closer to remembering each other when they woke up.

They climbed up the tree, that Valentine’s Day, the television already setting their favorite movie. They sat in silence for a few moments, until Jason cleared his throat and turned to Nico.

“Hey, Nico?”

Nico turned to Jason. “Yeah?”

Jason looked visibly nervous until he swallowed and looked Nico head-on. “I have a Valentine’s Day gift for you, too.”

Nico nodded, smirking. “What is it?”

“First you have to close your eyes.” Jason said.

Nico gave him a peculiar look before he closed both of his eyes. Jason leaned in close and Nico felt soft lips brush his. He surged forward, taking Jason’s face in his hands, and Jason reciprocated in kind to Nico’s veracity.

When they both pulled away Nico was shocked, and slightly breathless. Jason was smiling at Nico, bright and mischievously.

They sat in comfortable silence, until Jason sat back and sighed.

“I wish I could remember you when I woke up.”

Nico looked down at his hands.

“What if I’m not what you expect?”

Jason looked at him and smiled. “I used to imagine you when I was younger, before we knew each other.”

Nico held his hand. “What was I like?”

Jason sighed louder this time, obviously thinking. “I don’t know. I imagined you like you. I thought for a while that maybe you’d be a girl, but I didn’t mind that you were a boy. You’re just how I imagined when I was young.”

They smiled at each other. Nico leaned in for a kiss and when their lips met Nico opened his eyes to find it was morning and Hazel was standing over him.

“Time to wake up.”

He felt ghost lips on his and wondered why the only thing he could remember about his dream was blue. And even though he knew his soulmate was there he couldn’t figure out for the life of him why he couldn’t remember a name.

  


When they were sixteen Jason told Nico he was moving to New York City.

They had been laying in the wheat, it growing wildly and magnificently. Nico and Jason were holding hands and their hands lay in the grass in between them.

“I’m moving to New York City.” Jason said into the quiet.

Nico looked over at him. “That’s good. Why are you doing that?”

Jason looked at the clouds and Nico wondered if the sky was blue because it was the bluest sky he had ever seen or because it reminded him of Jason’s eyes.

Jason sighed. “Thalia is moving there with Annabeth and since She’s eighteen I can go with her.”

“That’s good.” Nico said lightly.

Jason turned on his side to face Nico. “What if I move there and I never find you? What if we never remember each other outside of our dreams?”

Nico turned to him and suddenly the grass wilted, a tell-tale sign Nico was upset.

“I don’t know what to tell you, Jason. We’ve tried everything.”

Jason ran a thumb over Nico’s hand, a way to comfort him after he was upset. “I’m sorry. I just want to stop living out our lives in our sleep. I want to be with you.”

Nico sighed, but he said nothing.

He opened his eyes and Hazel was standing at the foot of his bed it was morning. It was morning on a Saturday.

“What’s wrong, Hazel?”

Hazel sighed. “You were asleep for twelve hours. I had to wake you up, Nico.”

Nico nodded and got up, following her to the kitchen.

He pour cereal and ate and his stomach felt heavy from something he couldn’t recall.

Hazel sighed. “You were arguing with the boy, Jason.”

Nico shook his head. “I can’t remember.”

Hazel sat beside him. “One day you will.”

 

Jason Grace was Hazel’s friend and Nico met him at a party. He didn’t know him and he hadn’t really planned on meeting him until Jason walked straight up to him and spun him around.

“Nico.”

Nico looked at him and grumbled, thinking about how rude a completely stranger had to be to him, just for his attention.

“How do you know my name?”

Jason searched his eyes for a moment before he frowned, sad and upset, and left. “Nevermind. Sorry, I thought you were someone I knew.”

Nico sighed. “I get that a lot.”

Jason waved him off. “Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I’m Jason. Jason Grace.”

Nico looked down at where his food was on the floor and sighed. “Nice to meet you, Jason Grace.”

That night Jason didn’t show up. Jason didn’t show up for weeks.

Nico began to have nightmares again.

They would be dark and there would be flashes of his mother’s lifeless face and instead of sweetly mumbling about boys, he’d wake up screaming, crying, and flailing. Hazel would stay with him and he’d hug her tight, hoping that the dreams would return.

The dreams stayed away for days, then days turned to weeks, and then weeks turned to months, and then it became half a year.

Nico was seventeen years old when his dreams came back.

He stood in the field, and for a while it was empty. There was nothing but the field of wheat. Except this time the wheat looked dead. Well and truly dead.

Nico looked at the dead grass that went on for miles and he thought about how this was worse than the nightmares. That looking at the abandoned treehouse and the death that seeped through everything in his soulmate dream world was so much worse than reliving a death he barely remembered. But then again, he barely remembered this too.

“What are you doing here?” Jason said from behind him.

He turned and looked to find Jason standing there. Jason’s eyes were bloodshot with terrible circles under them.

“W-what happened, Jason?” Nico asked, taking steps forward to help Jason. But Jason took just as many steps back and Nico dropped the hand that reached out to help him.

Jason’s jaw locked. “What are you doing here, Nico?”

Nico looked around at the desolate place, and the sky that looked gray and sickly. “I was having nightmares, and I tried to have dreams. I waited for you.”

Jason looked tired, sad, beaten, all the things Nico had looked like for the last seven years since they had met.

Jason frowned at him and he felt a cold chill grip his heart. “No one asked you to do that.”

Nico took a step back. “But I did. I thought. . .”

Jason’s eyes grew angry, frustrated, sad. “What? That we could keep this going, Nico? That we could live in this dream world and pretend this is living? That we could be happy like this?”

Nico felt young all over again, reliving that moment when Bianca had left him, expecting him to understand, to be nine and be old enough that he understood that people left you and you had to let them.

The grass around Jason began to cover itself in frost as he continued. “I couldn’t keep coming here, Nico! I can’t keep coming here and being okay with it. I’m being to question if we’re even-”

He didn’t finish but Nico recoiled as though he’d been slapped in the face with the whole words uttered out loud.

“If we’re even soulmates and we’re not just holding on to that so we can handle not having anyone.”

Nico shook his head, steeling his eyes, hardening in a way he never had to with Jason.

“No. You don’t believe that.”

“How would you know?” Jason’s eyes were sad now, delirious in their melancholy, and he spoke desperately, as if to find any reason or all of the reasons to leave, to make his leaving justified.

Nico woke up.

He was crying, and for the first time he remembered. But he remembered only the words spoken, and he swore up and down that he wished he could remember the face that had spoken them.

Hazel held him as he sobbed into her shirt and behind them in the doorway Frank stood, Hazel’s own soulmate. He walked over and he wrapped the both of them in his arms and for the first time in a long time Nico relished in the contact. And if Frank got tear stains on his shirt he didn’t complain. And for that, Nico was grateful.

 

The dream world stayed the way it was for months after their conversation that day. Nico tried to bring the plants to life, to imagine Jason’s eyes and let the sky reflect it, but nothing worked for long.

Nico didn’t have nightmares but the empty dreams were much worse.

Jason showed up on Christmas. He looked up to find Nico was already there, tending to the wheat that was now gray and dead.

“It’s dead.” Nico said simply.

Jason looked at him and didn’t say anything.

Nico looked up at Jason from where he stood in the wheat. “I remembered our conversation. When I woke up, I remembered what you said to me.”

Jason shut his eyes tight, taking on a look of pain. “I didn’t want you to remember me that way.”

Nico looked up at him and his eyes were sharp, but sad. “Do you think of all the memories here that I chose to take that one with me? You know, I know you remember me when you wake up.”

Jason swallowed. “How did you figure it out?”

“There’s only so many Thalia Grace’s in New York City. And you knew my name even though no one told you.”

They stood apart for a moment before Nico gripped a dead wheat stalk tight in his hand, just like the first they had met.

“Do you think this is easy for me? To walk up and never know what you look like? I have loved you since I was ten and you think that this is hard on you.”

He was crying freely now, looking at Jason in frustration and anger. “Do you think I would have chosen for us to live like this? Do you know what it’s like to love someone who you can’t even remember? At least when you wake up you’ll remember this. You’ll know what I look like. Did you know that I used to cry because I couldn’t remember the color of your eyes? They’re so blue and I wish I could remember just one thing about you. Just one! But I can’t! And I don’t know why I can’t remember you!”

Jason stood there, his own eyes wet, looking at Nico like he understood. Nico sat in the grass like they had all those months ago when the sky was blue. He was silent, his tears subsided, and then he looked at where Jason stood.

“I want us to break the dream world.”

Jason’s eyes widened. “What?”

Nico sighed and looked at the wilting grass. “What does this look like to you? Does this look like the place of two people in love. Jason, we’re a mess, and I want to have regular dreams. Like Bianca.”

“You can’t just decided to break the dream world now, Nico.” Jason said, appalled.

“And why not, Jason? What is good about keeping me trapped here? Because you said it yourself, you don’t want to me here.”

Jason kneeled in front of him. “We just need to figure out a way for you to remember, Nico. I can’t let you go if I can remember you.”

Nico looked at him. “We haven’t talked to each other, honestly spoken in the real world or this one, for over half a year.”

Jason took Nico’s face in his hands. “It’s different now that you can remember conversations, Nico. That’s the last step before you remember me when you wake up.”

Nico looked at him. “I missed you. Even when you were here, it felt like we hadn’t loved each other for a long time before this happened.”

Jason touched his forehead with his. “I know. We’ll fix this.”

Nico took Jason’s hands. “I trust you. I have to.”

When Nico woke up the next day it was early, and he even remembered the golden wheat coming back to life. Nico thought about things that were golden all day.

Jason Grace dropped by Nico’s apartment that day too.

He shuffled nervously in Nico’s doorway. “Hi.”

Nico gave him a look of suspicion. “Hey.”

“Can I come in?” Jason asked.

Nico sighed. “What do you need, stranger?”

Jason shuffled and wrung his hands. “I have to tell you something.”

Nico led him inside and sat him down on the couch. “What is it?”

Jason sighed and began to explain. It lasted for three minutes before Nico’s heart raced in horror and he ordered Jason to leave. Except that Nico’s eyes lingered on Jason’s blue eyes and for some reason he couldn’t get them out of head.

 

Nico loved the golden fields. When he saw them finally come back to life two months after Jason promised to fix whatever it was that was keeping Nico from remembering him, the golden fields had returned and Nico loved running his hands through them.

“You know my eyes. You and I still see each other at friend gatherings and you always stare at my eyes. You’re so close Nico.” Jason said as they lay together, holding each other, trying to find substantial tangibility in each other.

“Soon, Jason. It’ll be soon.”

 

When Nico blew out the candles on his birthday cake when he was eighteen he remembered Jason.

He hadn’t woken up and remembered Jason, but he had blown on the candles and as the smoke had floated into the air and everyone was clapping Jason was laughing and Nico remembered that laugh.

Always that laugh.

He walked over to Jason, eyes locked, and Jason was smiling, about to ask him something, but Nico’s mouth was over his and Jason was smiling and it was their worse kiss in the last eight years. But Jason was crying happy tears and Nico could remember the time in that treehouse where they had kissed and that time when Nico had skinned his knee when he was ten and Jason kissed it and healed it and those fields of golden wheat that grew impossibly tall because they knew Jason and Nico loved each other and Nico remembered the damn initials they had carved into their treehouse when Jason was thirteen and so in love he wanted to carve it into their special tree. Nico remembered Jason being fourteen with braces and trying to kiss him and getting a mouthful of metal and he remembered crying because some days he couldn’t handle the loneliness that his sister and mother had left behind, and he remembered Jason, on night when they were fifteen, and he had cried and he had broken so much glass that his hands bled and he talked about how his mother had died that day and how he wasn’t sorry but he felt sorry for not being sorry. Nico remembered the first time they had a wet dream with each other, how they moved together in sync and the world had been impossibly bright and full of so much love Nico couldn’t possibly understand it all.

Nico kissed him and Jason was smiling so impossibly wide and Nico wiped away the tears in his eyes and everyone looked at them and smiled.

He pulled away. “Hey, Jason.”

Jason laughed, a wet and loud laugh, but he laughed all the same and his eyes, just like the sky, Nico recalled, they shined like the ocean.

“Hi, Nico.”

Nico smiled at him. “I remembered you, like I promised.”

Jason began to cry anew and laugh again. “Of course.”

 

They were laying in the grass together that night while they slept and Jason grinned impossibly wide.

“You remembered me.”

Nico looked over to him. “I promised I would.”

Jason turned to him, gave him a kiss, and pulled away a few inches. “Ready?”

Nico nodded. “Ready.”

And they opened their eyes to find that they were facing each other, smiling in their sleep and now smiling as they lay in bed together, their hands clasped tight.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ATTENTION  
> Okay, so firstly, I would like for everyone to know that the Stardust!AU and Proposal!AUs are both being worked on at this time and while I do the short submissions I am hoping that the Stardust!AU will be out this month. And the Proposal!AU will be out BEFORE Valentine's Day. Thank you all for your patience and understanding.  
> Secondly, if you'd like to tell me how much you liked this work or any of it's parts, my tumblr is cuzfuckyouimawriter.tumblr.com  
> Feel free to submit things there if you're too nervous about it here, or if you just prefer there! Messages and things are always welcomed!  
> And thirdly have a cosmic day! :D


	29. And If These Bones Could Be Your Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one is for Silver_Bleeding_Earth once more! :D  
> In which the author wrote about first meetings, break ups, and a little bit of nothing in this chapter.

_**Prompt:** Speaking of roommates, "I've never really met you before but you're always somewhere near when I'm about to break up with somebody and now that I'm looking for somebody to help with half the rent a friend points me in your direction."? _  
  


* * *

 

Nico hated a lot of things. He hated pomegranates and people who played music loudly on the subway. He hated sour fruits and dry breads. He hated people who didn’t say what they felt and meant things different from what they said. Nico hated being overly emotional and investing too much in temporary things. 

That being said, Nico hated break-ups.

It started with a man he’d been dating for a month. Ansel had told Nico he loved him two weeks into their relationship and Nico had waited to see if he could reciprocate, but he didn’t, and when it became apparent that Ansel had invested much more into Nico than he had into Ansel, he broke it off. 

Nico first noticed the blond man when he broke up with Ansel in Central Park. The blond man had been sitting on a bench right across from him, talking with a Native American woman and feeding the pigeons. They had laughed at the birds while Nico dealt with the angry Ansel and when Nico left a few moments after Ansel stormed off he looked over to find the Native American woman gone and the blond man staring at him. His eyes seemed sympathetic even if he didn’t know what had just happened, as though he understood the plight of his fellow human.

Nico turned and walked faster.

 

Nico broke up with Mitchell next. They had only been together for three months. Mitchell was nice. Mitchell was kind and generous and funny and attractive. Mitchell was. . . well, he wasn’t what Nico needed. 

Nico had spent the better part of his life closeted, and when he finally came out it had been not nearly as dramatic as he had anticipated, but he was comfortable. He had tried to defy all the gay stereotypes given him when he came out, time and time again trying to break a mold he had never been asked to be put in. 

Mitchell didn’t.

Mitchell didn’t fight those stereotypes. He owned them and accepted them, and embraced them. Mitchell took all the stereotypes and wore them like a comfortable jacket. He was flamboyant and eccentric and all the things Nico didn’t want to be. It wasn’t that Nico was a self-loathing gay, he accepted himself as he was and he was past that point in his life where he felt ashamed of who he was. But Mitchell loved drawing attention to himself and Nico hated the spotlight. Mitchell needed someone who shined with him, not someone who receded into the shadows. 

He broke up with Mitchell in the doorway of his apartment, trying to keep the hurt to minimum and when Mitchell smiled at him and asked if they could be friends Nico smiled back and told him he’d like that. When Mitchell walked away, having had plans with Hazel, he turned and found that the blond man he’d seen from the park. He was standing two doors down and Nico couldn’t recall who owned the apartment but he knew that he didn’t hate them. They stared at each other for a moment before the door opened and the Native American woman and she invited him in. His eyes were still on him before he turned and smiled and greeted the woman and disappeared behind the door. 

 

Nico broke up with Will next. 

Now, Nico wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, but after having dated for six months something had gone right, or wrong, depending on how you looked at it. 

Will had known Nico since he was fourteen, was his best friend and one of the very few friends Nico willingly told everything to. He had been there when Nico was young and reckless and saved him from himself. Will was kind and bright and so good to Nico in all the ways that counted that when Will asked Nico for a date when he was twenty-three Nico agreed. They had gone on the date. They had awkwardly conversed then shared a warm and kind kiss right in front of Will’s apartment. They fell into a routine of kisses and sex and intimate moments, and for a moment Nico thought maybe he could stay with Will for the rest of his life.

But he didn’t.

Will was good, good in ways Nico had never experienced, and he never second guessed whether they should be together, but after six months they fell into a lull, resorting back to the way they used to be as friends, but this time there was more strain to behave as a couple. Will and Nico decided that they would be friends, no hard feelings or love lost because they could love each other still, just without all the complications of a romantic relationship. 

They broke up in the lobby of Nico’s building and as Nico walked away, promising Will he’d stop by later that week, he saw the blond man standing nearby, waiting for an elevator. Nico had half a mind to ask why he was always around when it seemed that Nico was breaking up with people. But as the elevator opened and he walked in Nico just turned away and went to visit Hazel.

 

Nico broke up with Octavian.

There are no words to describe the regret that Nico would feel later in after it’s passed, but at the time Nico had seen himself in Octavian and when they dated it was simply because they commiserated about the futility and bitterness of life. Nico had been feeling this way after Will, upset with himself for not loving his best friend, and then he met Octavian. Octavian was rude, and ignorant, and elitist, but Nico was bitter and Octavian was bitter and even during sex they brought out the worst in each other. 

It didn’t last very long. It lasted a month.

When Nico broke up with Octavian it had been in a loud club. Octavian had been dancing with another guy because he was spiteful because Nico had argued with him earlier, and when Octavian had been grinding on the first guy he could find Nico turned to the closest person near him and pulled them in for a kiss. It turned out to be the blond man.

Nico had been stupidly (read: stupidly and irresponsibly and recklessly) drunk and pulled him in for a hot kiss and when he pulled away the man was staring at him in shock and Nico smirked aside from his drunkeness. 

Octavian stormed over and yelled over the music and Nico threw his arm around the blond man and kissed his neck and when Octavian left, proclaiming to never wanting to speak to him again he sighed with relief. He stood tall, obviously more sober than he led on, but slightly drunk. He looked at the blond man who had said nothing as the entire event unfolded and he walked away, simple as that. 

The man touched his lips, shocked, and felt his face get hot as he watched Nico wall away into the crowd and gone out of sight. 

  
  
  


Which brings us to Nico in present day, breaking up with the fifth guy in two years. 

“It’s just not working out.” He always uses this line when he can’t find words for why he can’t love the person he’s with. 

He and Garrett are sitting in a cafe and Garrett looks red, but Nico is trying to make this as painless as possible. He and Garrett have a nice time. They have nice sex and go on nice dates, but Nico is not sure he can commit to someone like Garrett. Someone who wants to meet his father and stepmother, and wants to move in together, and build a future together. They’ve been dating for nine months and sure Nico would be willing to go further if it were any other person, except. . . well, he’s not. And he’s breaking it off because he knows that eventually Garrett will be ready and he won’t. So this is Nico’s smartest option, and it’s the safest.

Garrett is mad, which is understandable, and Nico still feels that pit of guilt in his stomach as he remembers Percy Jackson and how once upon a teenage clusterfuck he had confessed his feelings and Percy felt bad for years after. But Percy got over it and so will Nico. Because he needs to do this, for Garrett and for himself. So when Garrett calls him emotionally distant and storms out Nico just sits in his seat and ponders how everything could be going so poorly and how he’s twenty-three and besides his relationship with his sister and her kids and husband and his job as a writer with his father he has nothing to show for it. Nico knows he should be thankful, he should be thankful he has a sister and a good job, but these days it seems as though Nico is still the odd kid out in their friend group, always perpetually single or in between relationships, or dealing with complications. Octavian never met his friends but Nico is smart enough to know that Octavian isn’t the person who should ever meet people you love. 

So Nico is sitting there, pondering how his love life became such a sad state of affairs, when the blond man shows up. He sits down right in front of Nico where Garrett had been sitting, and he gives Nico a sympathetic look.

“You seem to really have bad luck with dating.” The blond man states, as though Nico hasn’t already come to that conclusion.

“Maybe it’s because you’re always around.”

The blond man shrugs. “Maybe.”

They sit in silence until the blond man sighs. “Okay, let’s cut to the chase, Percy and Annabeth said you needed a roommate and I recently got kicked out of my house, do you still have that roommate slot open?” 

Nico considers this. “You’ve been following me around because you need a place?”

The blond man shakes his head. “No. At first it was just coincidences but New York City is big enough that those never happen. And you kept breaking up with people, which is harsh, but I seem to always be there when you need to break up with someone.”

Nico narrows his eyes at him. “If you’re friends with Percy and Annabeth, why haven’t I seen you before?”

The blond man shrugs. “I was in San Fransico for the last two years with my sister and her girlfriend.”

“What changed?”

“My father. Things got harder. It’s harder to avoid him. Had to come back here and take over the family business.”

Nico frowned in confusion. “But if that’s the case why did you get kicked out?”

The blond man smiles at him, bright but bitter and it looks wrong with all the other honest features on his face. “You’re not the only one capable of breaking things off.”

After a moment of silence Nico sighs, because he knows he’ll say yes. Nico was never one to turn down people from less than outstanding backgrounds. In fact, he does the opposite, he loves helping people who come from less than ideal homes. Which is why Annabeth and Percy must have known to send this stranger Nico’s way, those plotting assholes.

“When can you move in?” He says instead.

The blond man smiles honest and wide this time and maybe Nico’s just a little bit in love. 

“In the next week, if that’s okay.”

Nico nods and holds out his hand. “I’m Nico by the way, Nico di Angelo.”

The blond man takes his hand and Nico, in the last five times he’s seen this man, had never noticed how blue his eyes were. 

“I’m Jason Grace.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ATTENTION  
> So, guys, as a filler for the Stardust!AU and Proposal!AU I am writing an X-Files prompt, and I would love it if you all could bring in some ideas of things you'd like to see, and headcanons in this universe and just a whole bunch of stuff, but I would love it if some people could give me ideas for how to start this!  
> Secondly, an update on when Stardust and Proposal AUs are coming out is that I actually will most likely be releasing the Proposal!AU first and the stardust one second! Remember, as always, that any headcanons you might have or any prompts or AUs you want to see, I would willingly and enjoyably complete for you!  
> As always, have a cosmic day!


	30. Share Your Silence And Unpack Your Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is no real prompt your author just really wanted to write something like this because she was craving resolution from the Blood of Olympus and dammit if it has to write itself 
> 
> In which the author makes a playlist for y'all to listen to, has Nico move on, and maybe she really wanted to see Nico and Annabeth's interactions more than she let on.  
> Or in which Nico takes in some strays, Jason is called out, and Annabeth finally becomes an important part of the story

So here is what happened. It all started on Haloa.

Haloa was kind of a big day for Camp Half-Blood. It was the first major festival of the year, and it was in honor of Demeter.

On Haloa at Camp Half-Blood Chiron had never made quite a big deal about it. More than half the campers had been gone away for the school year. But after the war with Gaea more of them stayed. Most of the time it was because they needed the support, to be with people who had fought in wars, to know that when they all turned to open doors in anxiety it wasn’t something imagined. That January all of the campers had come back in time for Christmas, for those who celebrated it, and then stayed well into the New Year to celebrate Haloa.

Traditionally women were separated from the men and they celebrated with Dionysus while the men would respect the celebration and stay away from them. But at Camp Half-Blood it was different.

It started when Nico and Jason were summoned by Dionysus.

Nico and Jason looked at each other as they stood outside the Big House.

Jason turned to Nico. “Nico! Hi!”

Nico turned to look at him and his eyes looked tired, but Jason’s tone hadn’t wavered in the four months since they saw each other last. The last time being a monthly outing with all their friends.

Nico gave him a tired smile. “Hey, Grace.”

Jason frowned as he took in Nico’s appearance. “Nico, are you eating enough? You look like you haven’t eaten.”

Nico shrugged. “I eat okay.”

Jason opened his mouth, poised to say something, but then the door swung open.

Dionysus in his leopard print shirt looked over the both of them and sighed. “Come in you two.”

They sat in the recreational room used to battle meetings and Nico frowned at Dionysus.

“Why did you summon me here? I have things I have to-”

Dionysus waved him off. “Oh, I’m sure your father can surely spare you for a while. The old man certainly has before you arrived.”

The ground rumbled and Nico looked down in disapproval and Dionysus stomped one foot on the floor. “Oh yes we get it. Now you’ll be forced to do your own chores, Hades.”

Nico looked back up at Dionysus and he looked worried, justifiably so. “What do you want from us?”

Dionysus looked between them before he grinned. “Haloa is coming soon. In almost three weeks time.”

Nico nodded, but Jason frowned in confusion. “What is Haloa?”

Nico looked at Jason. “It was this festival in Ancient Greece that honored Demeter and Dionysus.”

Dionysus grinned in actually approval. “You read.”

Nico shrugged. “Can’t be a demigod without knowing the holidays.”

Dionysus nodded. “Yes, well, as my father has stuck me here for a few millennia and I haven’t seen a good party in ages, I would like for us to present the Roman brutes with a festival in honor of them helping us even if they didn’t really have a choice.”

Jason nodded. “Okay.”

Dionysus turned to Jason. “As Pontifex Maximus I shall leave you in charge of bringing the Romans here.”

Jason nodded and was out the door, back to his duties and back to his work.

Nico lingered in the room. “Why do you need me?”

Dionysus waved him off again. “You’ll be in charge of the decorating and festivities. Although please do not make it historically accurate. Chiron would certainly not approve.”

Nico lingered. He felt like he should say something, but his embarrassment from all those years ago lingered. Having told the Olympian about attacks points and his idea of the underestimated abilities of his character lingered, made him cautious to say anything at all.

Dionysus sighed loudly. “Out with it, di Angelo.”

Nico looked at him from where he lingered near the door. “Sir, you. . . You’re doing this because of Pollux, aren’t you?”

Dionysus had been looking at where he had been pouring Diet Coke, but as Nico spoke he froze. Nico was worried he’d curse him with temporary madness. Dionysus didn’t say anything and Nico felt himself gather the courage to speak again.

“I mean, it can’t be just because of Pollux, but because of all the kids who stay here now. Because they remind you of how Pollux looks now.”

Dionysus crushed the can in his hand, glaring at him.

Nico sighed and turned to the door before he turned his head to say, “I didn’t lie before. You’re underestimated.”

“It should do you well to remember the same about yourself, Nico di Angelo.”

Nico walked out of the Big House and he was met by Jason sitting on the steps.

Jason turned to him. “Hey. What happened in there?”

Nico shrugged and began to walk to his cabin.

Jason followed him and before he walked in Jason stopped him.

He looked sheepish and smiled nervously. “I kind of decorated it when you hadn’t come back for a month. I wanted it to be a surprise.”

Nico didn’t say anything but he opened the door to find that the cabin looked entirely different. Instead of Greek fire the cabin was lit by pale gray lamps on bedside tables that all resided against the six beds in the huge room. They were all queen sized and had pale sheets of different colors on them as well as mahogany bedside tables and dressers built into the bed frames. The walls were pale gray with intricate black patterns and the curtains of the cabin were brown and drawn open. Off down a small hall were three separate bathroom and showering areas, all well decorated and well stocked from what Nico could see.

Nico turned to Jason. “Why did you do this?”

Jason sat down on one of the beds right in front of Nico. “Because you deserve to have a home to come back to. Just like the rest of us.”

Nico sat beside him and gave him a small smile. “Thanks.”

Jason smiled wide at him. “No problem.”

Nico looked around the room, at how different it was, how it looked like the type of room he could imagine the Hermes kids sleeping in, all close together, and so many of them, and how there would be a low buzzing of chatter and they would be happy and the room would feel warm.

Jason sighed. “It wasn’t totally unselfish. I got Chiron to agree to let me sleep in here.”

Nico turned to him quickly, frowning. “Why?”

Jason shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep in mine.”

Jason didn’t tell him about how the cabin reminded Jason of Nico. He didn’t mention how he couldn’t stay in his room with his father looming over him, reminding him of all that he had at stake and all that he had to lose. Jason didn’t tell him about how he couldn’t look at the statue without being reminded of a father who could never be there for him.

Nico nodded and lay down. “Thanks.”

Jason smiled at him. “No problem. Are you ready to make Haloa happen?”

Nico felt like there were things Dionysus wasn’t telling him, things about the celebration that were lost on Nico. He nodded.

“It’ll be a bit hard to do, but I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

The dinner bell rang and Jason and Nico both sat together and burned food for the gods, both hoping that they made this work.

 

_**Week One** _

 

Monday Nico woke up and walked around the camp, trying to understand what he should or could do. He ran into Chiron almost immediately.

Chiron approached him and smiled. “Nico, how has your father been treating you?”

Nico shrugged. “Fine.”

Chiron walked beside him as he continued walking around camp. “And I hear that you’ll be arranging the festivities for Haloa.”

Nico sighed. “I’m not even sure how to make it work.”

Chiron smiled at him in a fatherly way and when a student called him away he turned to Nico before he left. “I’m sure you’ll be able to arrange it. Mr. D rarely entrusts anyone with anything.”

He left and Nico went to go sit by Thalia’s tree. She’d long since joined the Hunters but everyone still called it that no matter what and when he went to the top of the hill he saw a little girl sitting at the trunk.

She was crying and part of Nico was tempted to turn around and wait for someone to happen upon her but he sighed and walked forward. Will had said he could have good things if he let good things happen to him.

The girl looked up at him and when her eyes widened Nico though she might run away.

“You’re Nico di Angelo.” She said in awe.

Nico shrugged. “Yeah. Who are you?”

She wiped the snot from her nose and the tears that had been welling and spilling over on her face. “I’m Samantha.”

Nico sat down on the snow covered grass with her. “Why were you crying?”

The girl got a look of desperation on her face and she began to cry.

“James from the Demeter cabin said I would never get claimed. And then Drew said that I might end up in a cabin with Ares kids. I don’t want to be an Ares kid!”

Nico held out his hand and she took it as she continued to cry. He held her hand and once her crying subsided he looked at her.

“Ares would be lucky to have a daughter like you.”

The girl sniffled and wiped her eyes. “You think so?”

Nico nodded. “I know so. Besides, who your parent is doesn’t mean you’re going to be like them. Frank Zhang? He could pass for an Apollo kid. But he’s Ares. Those things don’t matter.”

The girl sighed wetly. “I just don’t want to stay in the Hermes cabin anymore. I don’t even have a bed.”

Nico looked at her. “Why don’t you go back home?”

She sighed and looked past the barrier of camp. “Dad is busy with business. And being out there, with //them//, I can’t. I can’t.”

When she said them Nico knew she meant the mortals who didn’t see. He knew what she meant by can’t. She couldn’t be older than ten but already she had an inexhaustible sense of paranoia and anxiety that any time she left she’d be attacked by monsters. She had to be no older than eight when the Titan War had happened. Nine when the war with Gaea had been waged. She was his age when he found out about the monsters. His throat tightened.

Instead of speaking he stood up and offered her his hand. “Come on.”

She looked up at him. “Where are we going?”

Nico gave her what he hoped was a comforting smile. “We’re gonna go see Travis and Connor.”

When Nico got to the cabin and proposed his idea the twins immediately protested.

“No way, dude.” Travis said.

“Absolutely not.” Connor said.

Nico frowned at them. “And why not?”

Travis looked at Connor. “Do you know how offended our dad would be if we let you take campers and let them bunk in the Hades cabin?”

Nico sighed. “If I ask you politely, and burn offerings for the next month, and owe you both two favors each how would you feel about it then?”

Travis and Connor grinned.

“Deal.” They both said in unison.

 

Samantha and all the excess campers from the Hermes cabin all followed as Nico walked over to his cabin. They all flinched in anticipation as they looked in and found that the cabin was nicely decorated and spacious.

Sam grinned at him. “This is great!”

He led them in and even the ones who were suspicious of him relented for a moment to feel the beds. Fourteen of them and they all shared beds.

“I didn’t have bunk beds. Sorry.” He said cautiously.

Samantha shook her head from where she had thrown herself onto a bed. “For a bed this soft, I would be fine sharing it with three people.”

The other cabin members nodded in agreement. Jason walked in and looked at the kids all lying in their claimed beds.

He smiled. “You put the room to good use.”

Clarisse walked in and saw all the kids sighing in pleasure and she pulled Nico aside outside of the cabin while Jason talked to the unclaimed kids.

She looked fierce, but even her glare didn’t scare Nico. He knew his strengths and he refused to back down.

She shook her head. “You got guts, kid.”

Nico shrugged.

She looked at him. “No, seriously. You’re not like Jackson. You’re a good person, and an even better warrior.”

Nico looked at her for a moment before he spoke cautiously. “Why are you complimenting me?”

She sighed, obviously struggled to find the correct words. “I have a sister in the cabin. Her name is Marnie. She would have died with us if you hadn’t brought that damn statue. She was five and she was ready to die for the cause and because of you she’ll live to see her sixth birthday. I respect that, di Angelo.”

Nico shook his head. “I got help from my friends.”

Clarisse scoffed and it sounded harsh and conniving without any actual bitterness. “Please, Hedge told me all about you carrying the damn thing halfway across the world. Reyna didn’t do that, and Hedge admitted he didn’t have a lick of strength to do that.”

Nico felt flustered by the attention and praise but Clarisse put a hand on his shoulder. “You saved Marnie. She was in the front lines and you saved her. And that means you always have a friend or ally with me, di Angelo.”

He nodded, unsure how to take her offer.

She coughed and stood ruggedly and clapped him so hard on the back he propelled forward a bit. “Now get back in there. You’ve wasted enough of my time.”

Nico chuckled but went back inside on her request. Jason turned to looked at Clarisse who snarled at him.

“What did she want?” Jason asked.

Nico just shook his head. “Something about a threat. I handled it.”

He went over to the campers who were now chatting excitedly and Jason watched him, feeling a comfortable warmth bloom in his chest as the campers gathered round Nico and thanked him. He glowed like the sun, a little bit nervous to peak through the clouds but slowly, steadily, shining.

 

On Tuesday Nico woke up to all the kids rushing to put away their clothes before inspection. Samantha had groggily shaked Nico awake, claiming that as head counselor he had to meet the person who was inspecting the cabins this week. Today Leo was inspecting and he was two cabins away.

He turned to find that all the campers were steadily taking showers after each other and cleaning. He looked at Samantha and kneeled down beside her.

“How do you feel about being Head Counselor?” He whispered.

Samantha gasped. “But I can’t do that! This is the Hades cabin! I’m not a daughter of Hades.”

Nico waved his hand nonchalantly. “Hmmm, well the Greeks invented Democracy and I say that we use a vote to see who should be the Head Counselor.”

Samantha nodded shyly and Nico whistled out loud as he stood. Everyone froze and turned to him.

“So, now that there are people here, maybe we can decided who should be the head counselor. Who votes for Samantha?”

Everyone raised their hand and Nico shrugged as he looked down at Samantha. “I guess you’re the head counselor.”

Just as he spoke a knock came at the door and everyone turned to the door. Nico calmed walked over with Samantha and Leo stood in the doorway.

“Oh no way man! I heard about what you did! This new set up looks awesome!”

Nico gave him a tight smile. “Thanks.”

Leo shifted a bit nervously, remembering who he was talking to.

“Right so, Nico, does your cabin-”

“I’m not the head counselor. Samantha is.”

He pointed to the little girl at his side and Leo nodded knowingly before he knelt down to her level.

“Okay, Sammy, cool name by the way, do your cabin mates have their bathrooms in order?”

Samantha nodded, stone still and absolutely sure.

Leo grinned his impish grin. “And everything is cleaned inside and out?”

Samantha nodded. “You can check if you want.”

Leo held up his hands in surrender. “No, no, I believe you, Sammy. Thanks.”

Leo marked off things on his list and then he stood and gave Nico a short wave before moving on.

Nico turned to Samantha. She smiled up at him and they called the cabin members to breakfast.

That morning Nico felt uneasy, but safe, if that could be believed. There was two kids, a girl and a boy, named Fey and Gavin who both felt uneasy near Nico, but as breakfast wore on and the younger children praised Nico for his skills on the battlefield Fey and Gavin relented and joined in on the conversation. Nico laughed easily with them, not so worried about the shadows he had been threatening to be consumed by not so long ago.

He laughed and for a moment Nico understood the feeling of having a family at camp. He understood the appeal of an entire group of people who talked with you and laughed with you and fought with you and didn’t care about who your father was.

Breakfast finished and the campers who saw the campers in the Hades cabin looked at all of them warily, as if they found them as suspicious as Nico by association.

Jason walked with Nico once he ordered the campers to go about their daily activities instead of lingering around with him.

“You adjusted to that surprisingly well.”

Nico didn’t know what to say, didn’t know how much was too much.

“I find a home in them.” was all he said.

Jason nodded, smiling softly. “Yeah. A bunch of kids that no one is ready to want and who just want a home. I could see why.”

Jason left shortly after that to go teach sword fighting so Nico decided to go to Dionysus up at the Big House to discuss the party at Camp Half-Blood.

He walked up the steps and found that Mr. D and and Chiron were playing pinochle on the porch that wrapped around the Big House.

Mr. D was sitting with his back to Nico but he knew he was there before anyone else. “Yes, di Angelo?”

Nico frowned at the way Mr. D did that. “Sir, how exactly do I plan this party with no money or idea of what I’m supposed to do.”

Mr. D gave a long suffering sigh. “That card from the casino, it’s in your back pocket. And surely you can ask the Stoll twins for a laptop as we are all aware they undoubtedly have at least one. Order things with Hermes. He shall deliver them right when we need them. Away with you now, boy, I am busy.”

Nico frowned and walked away, Chiron giving him an apologetic look.

Nico walked over to the Hermes cabin where Travis was currently fashioning a trap for the door and Nico watched him for a moment before he spoke.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

Travis jumped and whatever had been fashioned snapped and his him in the chest with a blue water balloon filled with colored water. Travis sighed disappointingly at his contraption and turned to Nico.

“I was making a trap for Connor so I could get him back for this morning. Anyway, what can I do for you?”

Nico sighed. “I need to borrow a laptop from you.”

Travis chuckled. “Do you even know what the internet is?”

Nico glowered at him. “Yes.”

Travis shrugged, seemingly undisturbed by the way Nico’s shadows moved on their own when he glowered. “Just wondering. Anyway, I need something to exchange for the laptop. Mr. D will have my hide.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Mr. D already knows. He’s who told me to come here. Anyway, I have this.”

He flashed the Lotus Hotel and Casino card in front of Travis. “I can let you use this for a whole twenty-four hours whenever you decide that you need it.”

Travis looked at it in shock. “Percy said that those have no limit of money.”

Nico nodded. “He was right.”

Travis practically threw the laptop at Nico. “Keep it. I don’t care. But I will ask for that in the future. I have to make a list of all the things I want.”

Nico shrugged and walked away.

He sat in his cabin thinking and researching Haloa. He ordered expensive decorations, or, at least he thought they were. He didn’t understand money in this century. But he had spent upwards to five thousand dollars when he decided he could gather the rest of the things for the party from campers and nymphs. Just as he was putting the laptop away in his drawers all the cabin mates came trickling in from their training that day. Samantha and Fey were first, both flopping down in bed.

Samantha sighed loudly. “I am never leaving this bed.”

Nico just smiled at her fondly without saying anything.

When everyone in the cabin was there Nico just looked around the room at the campers who had begun to talk amongst themselves. Nico sat down on the floor by his bed and began to read a mythomagic comic while they chattered away. He felt lonely, in a way that was new to him, not sure how to make friends because Bianca had died and before that Nico had only ever needed her. He wasn’t sure how to make friends or talk to people and with a room full of campers just like him he still found it hard to make friends.

Sam sat down next to him quietly. “You know, I heard you were from the 1940’s. Is that true?”

Nico nodded wordlessly.

She smiled. “That’s cool! So you’re kinda like Captain America?”

Nico turned to her in confusion. “Who?”

“Oh man, you don’t know who Captain America is?” Gavin called from the other side of the room.

Nico turned around and frowned, body suddenly defensive. “No. I don’t.”

Gavin reached under the bed and pulled out a stack of comics and the other campers drew closer to Nico as Gavin sat down right across from him and grinned.

“Oh man, he’s the best!”

A girl Nico vaguely remembered with the name of Jessica scoffed from right next to Nico. “No way! The Black Widow is the best! She picked up Thor’s Hammer!”

Jessica began to explain to Nico the entire synopsis of Natasha Romanov’s life and her life with the Avengers while Samantha interjected with cool facts. Gavin then explained that Captain America was kind of like Nico in that he had been displaced in time and ended up in New York City eighty years later because he had been stuck in a piece of ice. Nico had scoffed but Samantha promised that it was super cool and scientifically explained. They all cheered on Jessica as she defended Black Widow and Gavin had supporters for Captain America until another girl named Karina had begun to defend Tony Stark with Fey and soon there was a debate of all the Avengers mixed in with other comic book heroes Nico had never heard of. But the campers kindly explained everything to Nico as they had begun to yell and defend their characters and Nico watched them include him and he watched them light heartedly debate as they gathered in a circle around him and just as Fey and Karina were pointing out that Captain America would lose in the Civil War movie Jason appeared in the doorway.

“You know,” he shouted over all the chattering and happy voices, “you guys missed the dinner bell by fifteen minutes.”

The campers filed out slowly, all of them still talking and chattering and arguing over Marvel and DC comic characters.

Nico stood up and brushed himself off as Jason waited for him by the door. Nico walked over to him and they walked out of the cabin.

“I didn’t know that you felt comfortable around so many people.”

Nico shrugged. “They crowded me. I didn’t mind. They were explaining superheroes to me.”

Jason chuckled. “Finally got tired of Mythomagic?”

Nico shook his head, tone dead serious. “I would never get tired of Mythomagic.”

Jason nodded, chuckling again. “You’ve never been late for dinner because you were busy having fun with campers.”

Nico frowned and looked at him. “And?”

Jason shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m glad you’re happy, Nico.”

Nico shook his head. “Me too.”

 

After dinner at the campfire Nico had been walking off to go be alone in the forest simply because he didn’t go to the campfires but just as he was walking past his cabin Fey and Samantha called after him.

“Nico!” They called.

He turned to find Sam and Fey running to catch up to him until they were right in front of him. “Where are you going, Nico?”

He shrugged. “Never really did the whole campfire thing even when I was here.”

Sam walked over to him, so impossibly small in size, but larger than life and pulled him along back toward the campfire.

She scoffed. “Come on, silly. You have a whole cabin full of friends.”

Nico nearly stilled at the words. “Friends. . .”

Fey rolled her eyes. “Yeah. You know, people who like you and like hanging out with you.”

Nico looked back at the forest and hesitated. “I don’t know if I would-”

Sam pulled on his arm again and glared at him. Nico may or may not have taken just one step back from the ferocity of her glare.

“As Head Counselor I order you to go and have a fun time and eat s’mores.”

Nico raised one eyebrow and gave her a confused look. “What in Hades is a s’more?”

Fey beside him gasped and she took his other arm and they pulled him back to the center of camp.

Sam shook her head. “You have to eat one! They’re the whole reason for campfires!”

They both sat him down in between them and his cabin members sat behind him or right next to him and Chiron from across the fire smiled at Nico.

“Nice of you to join us, Nico.”

Nico shrugged and as the cabins began to sing and Fey and Sam began to sing Nico hummed along, not entirely confident enough to fully sing but catching their enthusiasm easily. As the fire glowed brighter Jason smiled at Nico from where he sat with Leo and he gave Nico a thumbs up. Maybe it was the encouragement from Fey and Sam as they clapped and sang or some inner need to meet this expectation that Jason had of him but Nico sung in a low voice and the fire burst into a huge pillar of fire. Everyone gasped and clapped and cheered and Fey and Sam must have noticed it was him because they turned to him with identical smiles.

When it was over Nico went back to the cabin and his cabin mates all smiled and talked loudly and when he got into the cabin everyone filed in, changing into their pajamas but not tired enough for bed. Gavin sat beside Nico and showed him all the comics he should read and Jessica showed him art she had ready to hang on walls when she finally had a permanent place at camp.

Nico watched Gavin enthused and passionate about his comics and even if he was sixteen and two years older than Nico he reminded Nico of all those years ago when Nico knew by heart all the attack points of all his favorite monsters. Nico smiled at the comics and when everyone went to bed Nico stayed up and sat on the floor beside his bed and with a booklight he stayed up well into the night, reading about James Buchanan Barnes and Steve Rogers and how against all impossibilities they had been brought together years later. Nico liked that part of the comics the best.

 

Wednesday Nico woke up to shouting from outside his cabin. He had dozed off some time in the early morning but when he came to just two hours later he was awoken by shouting which made him get up and check what all the noise was about.

He walked out and found that outside all the Roman campers had arrived, and there were a lot of them.

He looked at the head of the group to find Jason shaking hands with Reyna, and he could also see the way she gave Jason a tight-lipped smile.

He walked past his cabin mates to the front of their group with Samantha right next to him. It had become a custom that the Praetors were supposed to greet each head counselor, to keep a bit of formality for the Romans.

Reyna walked over to Nico first while Frank greeted Mr. D and Chiron with Hazel.

Reyna smiled at him. “Head-”

Nico shook his head. “I’m not head counselor. She is.”

He point to Samantha who was looking at Reyna in awe, completely blown away and shocked.

Reyna raised an eyebrow at Nico but he just shook his head which she understood to mean that he would explain it all later.

“Well, I give you my warmest regards, Head Counselor of the cabin of Hades.”

She smiled at she shook hands with Samantha and Samantha just shook her hands, still too shocked to speak.

Reyna turned to Nico. “I’ll catch up with you, okay?”

He nodded and waved at her as she walked away to greet others.

Hazel made her way over to entrance of the Hades cabin where all fifteen of its inhabitants stood.

She looked at Nico cautiously hopeful. “Who are these people?”

Nico waved at all of them and then he turned to Hazel. “Well, they’re all the unclaimed kids from the Hermes. We had space, and well, they came here. Or, well, I invited them.”

Hazel smiled at him. “That’s great! We have bunkmates now.”

She turned to everyone and Nico introduced her. “This is Hazel, she’s my sister by our godly parent.”

Fey’s eyes widened as she looked at Hazel. “You’re the girl who got blessings from Hecate to control the Mist! You’re amazing!”

Hazel laughed nervously, obviously unused to the attention. “She’s the one who gave me the gifts.”

Everyone swarmed Hazel, eager to talk to her and as they did Sam turned to Nico where he stood by a pillar of the cabin, looking on with a comfortable and eased look.

She stood next to him. “So you know Praetor Reyna?”

He shrugged. “We traveled halfway around the world. It was bound to happen.”

Samantha sighed dreamily. “She’s great. I want to be like her when I grow up.”

Nico’s throat tightened at the tone of admiration in her voice. He thought about how just a few months prior he’d told Percy all about his feelings and how Nico had resolved the feelings of hero worship after four years.

He looked down at Sam. “Why not now? Why not become the person you want to be right now?”

Sam didn’t say anything and Nico went on, looking over at where Jason was greeting his Roman friends. “You shouldn’t wait to be something you’re not. Just be the best that you want to be.”

Sam smiled up at him. “I don’t get why the other kids always called you scary.”

Nico raised an eyebrow. “You don’t think I’m scary?”

Sam shook her head. “Nah, you’re just sad and lonely. We all get like that sometimes.”

Nico shook his head. “Maybe it’s not that simple and people see that.”

Sam looked over at Jason too and she looked back at Nico and whispered, “Do you love him?”

Nico shook his head in denial, trying to keep his heart rate low from nervousness that she’d catch him in a lie. “No.”

Sam nodded, so serious that it was almost comical. “I’ll keep your secret.”

Nico shook his head and walked over to their bunkmates to break them up and let Hazel join Frank by the Ares kids.

 

Reyna sat with Nico in the highest level of seat in the arena while everyone below them was practicing sword fighting.

She had a faint smile on her face. “Why did you accept all those kids?”

Nico gave her a sideways glance as he watched Sam fight with the Stoll brothers. “The truth?”

Reyna nodded.

He let out a long sigh. “Because they’re alone, and scared. And I don’t think we need any more people bitter at the gods. I have a chance to give them something I never had, a home. I’ll give them that.”

Reyna smiled down at where she could see Sam pin Travis Stoll down with a kick-flip. “And the girl? Was that just a kind gesture?”

Nico shrugged. “I don’t need the attention of being head counselor. Plus, she’s a good kid. She’s good.”

Reyna looked over at him. “She reminds me of you quite a bit.”

Nico gave her a small smile. “She’ll certainly end up better than me.”

Reyna shrugged. “I suppose. But you certainly can’t sell yourself short. You did save the world after all.”

Nico scoffed. “That prophecy was for Leo, Piper, Annabeth, Frank, Hazel, Jason, and Percy. Not me.”

Reyna shook her head. “I’m not talking about the prophecy. Will told me about what you did with Percy, admitting your feelings. You can be your own hero, Nico.”

Nico thought about that for a moment, looking at Sam being helped up by Clarisse, then he turned to her.

“Thank you.”

She smiled at him, a bright kind of smile she hadn’t shown while they had been traveling the world. She was happier now, he could tell, but she looked over at Jason and she got this look in her eyes and Nico got up.

She looked up at him. “Where are you going?”

Nico just looked at her. “I’ll see you at dinner, I have to go do something.”

She rose with him and nodded. “Okay. Perhaps I can meet your bunkmates at dinner.”

Nico have her a smile, something he hadn’t gotten used to yet, but didn’t hate. “I look forward to it.”

 

Nico approached Jason as he entered the Zeus cabin. “I need to talk to you.”

Jason was changing his shirt. “Nico! What’s up?”

“Have you talked with Reyna?” Nico asked.

Jason’s eyes shifted. “No. Why?”

“Because before Haloa you should.”

Jason shifted nervously in his fresh orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt. “I’m not sure that’s such a great idea.”

Nico looked at him with sharp eyes. “Because she deserves that much.”

Jason sat down on his bed and sighed. “I can’t.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “You fought Gaea with your powers and bare hands. You can talk to Reyna.”

Jason shook his head. “It’s not about that.”

“Then what is it about, Jason?” Nico asked.

Jason looked at him with sad eyes. “I remembered the old me. The one Reyna loved.”

Nico leaned forward. “And?”

Jason ran a hand through his hair. “It’s bad. I was such a terrible person. And I know I’m not any better now, but the Roman me. . .”

He trailed off as his voice cracked and Nico watched him intently before he walked over and sat down across from Jason on his bed.

“Whatever you’ve done, or what you thought about doing, you owe it to her to fix things. She won’t let go of you if you never give her the chance to.”

Jason nodded and Nico walked out of the cabin without another word.

 

At dinner everyone at the Hades table was crowding Hazel and Reyna and vying for their attention while Nico just sat back with an amused look on his face.

After dinner Reyna was separated by Jason and Hazel took Nico to go sit on the roof of their cabin. They could hear the chattering of kids below them and they looked at the stars that were abundant in the cold winter sky.

Hazel spoke softly after a few moments.

“I’m happy for you, Nico.”

Nico looked at her. “Thanks.”

She shook her head. “For a moment I thought maybe you were doing this because of Bianca. Filling a hole even I couldn’t.”

Nico raised an eyebrow. “And?”

Hazel sighed and the wisps of air swirled up into the December air. “And I don’t think that’s what you’re doing. I talked to that girl, Sam? She says you made her head counselor.”

Nico shrugged. Hazel gave him a sidelong glance and smiled. “I think you just wanted them to have somewhere they could think of as permanent. Something to hold on to.”

Nico looked up at the sky and thought about Gaea and the giants that had towered high above him and he thought about Pheobe and all those dead girls and all the dead boys and girls. He thought about how there were so many dead people left along the way to their victory and Nico thought about Will’s brother and how Will had cried into his shoulder as he tried but failed to heal his brother. He thought about what it meant to have a home and to be loved and how for a long time Nico didn’t know what any of those things meant. But Nico thought about the pillar of fire at the campfire sing-alongs and about comics tucked away already read. He thought about Sam and her idea of what a hero was and how she had to have been eight or seven when the wars began almost two years ago and how she would have been the same age as Annabeth when she ran away from home. Nico thought about the shadows he’d lived in for so long and he thought about Jason and Cupid and every single one of the people in his life who had held him to the earth while he tried to fade into shadows. He thought about Will who would grip his hand tight and there was a light that radiated off of him that kept Nico solid and still.

Something to hold on to. Something permanent.

Nico shrugged and counted the stars in the sky, wondering if it would ever be enough to count all the people who they’d lost along the way.

“We have to grasp for something.”

Hazel turned to him, bathed in moonlight that made her beautiful and ageless. Her eyes reflected the stars and Nico wondered about the kind and generous universes that resided inside of her.

“You have things like that. I want you to remember that.” She said softly.

And he nodded, and silently he promised to hang stars in the sky just for her.

 

Thursday Percy and Annabeth came to Camp Half-Blood. There was much less fanfare for the two heroes and one of the first people who saw them bounding from Half-Blood Hill was Nico. Who, incidentally, was walking through the forests at the edge of the border of the camp with Sam, asking dryads to make flower crowns for Haloa. They agreed amiably and Nico also invited them to the party.

Nico and Sam were just heading to Sam’s sword fighting class when they heard someone behind them.

“Nico!” Percy called.

Nico turned with Sam, who held his hand purely as a comfort and not a necessity. He waved at them and gave them a small smile. Sam’s eyes widened and she turned to Nico.

“You know so many cool heroes.”

Annabeth and Percy stood in front of them and Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Percy’s hardly cool,” she stage whispered to Sam, “he’s kind of lame.”

Percy rolled his eyes and his red cheeks and nose accentuated the action. “Anyway, what were you guys doing out in the woods?”

Annabeth smiled at Sam. “And who is this?”

Nico shrugged. “We were talking to the dryads about flower crowns. And this,” He held up his and Sam’s joined hands, “is Sam.”

Sam puffed out her chest and nodded. “Yep! I’m the head counselor of the Hades cabin.”

Annabeth and Percy both gave Nico a look of shock and he pretended to ignore them in favor of smiling at Sam proudly.

She had to go to sword fighting which Percy took her to while Annabeth hung back with Nico.

She smiled cautiously at him. “You look good.”

Nico shrugged. “I feel good.”

Annabeth pulled her scarf tighter around her. “Listen, I think we should talk.”

Nico shook his head, already expecting her to ask him to take time away to talk. “We don’t need to.”

“But I think we do.”

Nico shook his head. “Really we don’t. I said I was over it and I meant it. It’s not like I’d lie just to keep up a cover I blew anyway. Everything is okay.”

Annabeth sighed and looked at him. “Are you sure?”

He nodded and she let out a breath. “I thought for so long you blamed me because Percy went after me and didn’t look after your sister.”

Nico shrugged and sure thinking of Bianca still hurt more than anything else in his life had, but he had to move on, move forward or get caught in the past like Reyna’s family had.

“That was done and over. I was never mad at either of you.”

Annabeth gave him a look that told him she didn’t believe him and he relented. “Okay, well, maybe it was that I was misdirecting my anger. But after Bianca and everything my father did I felt alone, and isolated, and it was easy to blame you and Percy. But not anymore.”

Annabeth sat down in the grass that had no snow on it and Nico sat next to her. She looked out at the camp she loved and he looked at the camp he was beginning to love.

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly, “I think I always sort of knew about you. And for a while I let that rumor about you being in love with me spread because it meant protecting something someone else wasn’t ready to reveal. I thought maybe I was helping you even if you hated us.”

Nico sighed. “You didn’t have to.”

Annabeth shook her head. “I didn’t. But I take care of my own, Nico. I always have. This camp, these people, they’re my family. And as crazy as it may seem to you, you’re my family too.”

Nico looked at the guys and girls that ran about, some practicing and some laughing and playing pranks and Nico saw Hazel sit with Hestia by the hearth at the center of the cabin layout and he thought about his mother and how he hadn’t had a home in so long and he longed for it so badly.

“Thank you.”

Annabeth looked at him for a moment before they both stood and stood across from each other.

She stood there for a moment before she spoke. “Can I hug you?”

Nico shook his head, giving just a small indication, and Annabeth wrapped her arms cautiously around her. She was tall, built slim and slender and with her soft curly hair the careful way she hugged him she reminded him so much of Bianca. He pulled her close impulsively, remembering Bianca and the last time they hugged and how he had clung for dear life because letting go of her meant letting go of the only thing in his world that had made sense at the time. Nico remembered her smelling like spices from Italy and the warmth she projected onto him to make him feel safe. Annabeth smelled like New York smog and the ocean and still Nico held her for longer than he needed to, craving the touch of someone who understood, who knew what it was like, someone who Nico could trust with his whole life. And maybe Nico had been bitter about Percy never loving him back, but Annabeth was hugging him and she knew. She knew the whole time but she kept his secret because she knew what it meant to him.

And that was worth more to him than any stupid crush.

 

* * *

 

**Playlist for this fic:**

 

The Kids Aren’t Alright//Fall Out Boy

Big Blue Wave//Hey Ocean!

Millions//Gerard Way

Brave//Sara Bareilles

Waves//Electric Guest

No Shows//Gerard Way

The Ghosts of Beverly Drive//Death Cab For Cutie

Halo//Beyonce

The Run And Go//Twenty-One Pilots

Spotlight//Patrick Stump

Flaws//Bastille

This Year//Cooper

Riptide//Vance Joy

Budapest//George Ezra

Time After Time//Cyndi Lauper

Unpack Your Heart//Phillip Phillips

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoooooops. This definitely became longer than I had expected it to, but look there oh well, the author regrets nothing.  
> As always, submissions are still being accepted and have a cosmic day!


	31. To Each His Own pt. 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Author got her work done early and decided to share the conclusion of her favorite work!
> 
> Or, in which Nico is too good for his own good, Jason is more in love than he thought, and everyone finally gets the chapter they've been waiting for

Nico and Jason were walking onto the boardwalk when Jove greeted them. His eyes were cold and Nico knew there could only be bad news. He’d grown used to seeing those types of eyes throughout the years. Jason steeled himself, knowing his father had done something Jason knew he wouldn’t approve of.

“I want to talk to both of you,” he turned to Jason, “your mother is never to hear about any of this.”

Jason shook his head slowly as Jove led them to the stables where there were no more than two horses. Beside the horses Mr. Augustus stood there, looking at them snidely.

“Told you I'd check up on you.”

Jason turned to his dad, fists clenched furiously. “What did you do?”

Jove shrugged. “I got a phone call from Mr. Augustus here, who told me that if you were lying, and he strongly believes that you are, he would send you to prison. So I flew him up here.”

Jason swallowed the bile in his throat. “Dad.”

Octavian sighed. “Luckily for you, your father negotiated a deal on your behalf. Now, this offer's gonna last for 20 seconds, so listen closely. You're gonna make a statement admitting this marriage is a sham or you're gonna go to prison. You tell the truth, you're off the hook, and he,” Octavian sneered at Nico, “is going to go back to Canada.”

When Jason felt Nico, still damp down to his toes, grip his arm out of what seemed to be fear and moved behind Jason a bit as though he could protect his vulnerable body with Jason’s, Jason hesitated. There was so much more to lose now. So much more for Nico to lose, like Gammy telling Nico how handsome he was and her smiling at them knowingly and them loving Nico unconditionally, unlike Jason’s father.

Jove looked at Jason. “Well... Take the deal.”

Jason covered Nico’s shaking hands with his unoccupied one. “I don't think so.”

Jove scoffed. “Don't be stupid, Jason.”

Jason glared at his father and then turned to Octavian. “Here's your statement. I've worked for Nico di Angelo for three years. Six months ago we started dating, we fell in love. I asked him to marry me, he said ‘yes’.”

Jason turned back to his father and hoped he could see the pure hate that raged within his eyes. “I'll see you at the wedding.”

 

As Nico and Jason were changing and getting ready for bed that night they heard knocking on their door.

They heard Gammy call from the other side of the door. “Hope everyone is decent,” she barged in and smiled at Nico, “you need to come with me. Now, tomorrow is your wedding day. You have to give the Baby Maker a rest tonight. It's tradition.”

Gammy turned to Jason. “Give your groom a kiss good night.”

Nico wrinkled his nose. “We're not gonna use the Baby Maker.”

Gammy grinned at Jason. “You've got your whole lives to be together.”

Jason chuckled. “Okay.”

Gammy pulled Nico by his arm. “Now, come on. Come on.”

Nico looked at Jason. “If I don't go with her, she's just gonna. . .”

Jason gave him a good natured smirk. “Come right back.”

Nico nodded. “Yeah. I figured.”

He turned to Jason before he left the room for good. “See you in the morning?”

Jason smiled. “Yeah.”

 

The next morning everything went off without a hitch and as Nico pulled on the suit Gaea had tailored he felt the guilt begin to swallow him. He swallowed the hollow feeling and left the room where he’d been left alone to get ready.

Will spoke as he saw Nico emerge at the doorway of the barn. Will had been asked to be the vicar and he had readily agreed. “Everyone, please be seated.”

Nico walked down the aisle and looked up at where Jason stood in a well pressed black suit with a rose on the lapel and Jason smiled at him. It didn’t look like a forced smile and it made Nico feel even worse. He thought about his sister Hazel and how at her wedding he’d walked her down the aisle and that was the last time he’d spoken to her. He thought of all the friends and family Jason had sitting there with him and he saw Piper standing near the front of the crowd and his throat tightened. He looked over to where Beryl and Gaea were smiling winningly at him. Right at the back of the crowd Octavian shook his head as Nico continued to walk and Nico wondered if the ground beneath him could be pulled or if his legs naturally felt like lead. The next thing he knew he was standing right beside Jason and Jason smiled down at him through his glasses.

Will cleared his throat and began. “We are gathered here today to give thanks and to celebrate one of life's greatest moments. To give recognition to the beauty, honesty, and unselfish ways of Jason and Nico’s true love in front of family and friends. For it is their family and friends who taught Jason and Nico to love. So it is only right that family and friends are all-”

Will was interrupted by Nico raising his hand tentatively. “Do you have a question?”

Nico swallowed and shook his head. “No. . .”

Jason turned to him and Will furrowed his eyebrows. “Your hand is up.”

Nico shook his head again. “Oh, it, it's not a question,” he turned to the crowd, to Octavian, to face his mistakes, “but I do have something I need to say.”

“Nico,” Jason said warningly, “can it wait till after?”

Nico shook his head. “No. No.”

He looked at all the people in the crowd who looked at him with various looks of confusion. “Hi there. Hi. Thank you all so much for coming out. I... have a bit of an announcement to make about the wedding. A confession, actually.”

“What are you doing?” Jason hissed in a low voice.

Nico ignored him. “I'm a Canadian. Yes, Canadian. With an expired visa who was about to be deported. And because I didn't want to leave this wonderful country of yours, I forced Jason here to marry me.”

Something similar to panic siezed Jason. But it wasn’t because of the prospect of his family being upset. It was the way Octavian smiled snidely, victoriously, and Nico was was admitting to this. Nico would be deported.

“Nico, stop it.” Jason hissed.

Nico continued to ignore him. “See, Jason has always had this extraordinary work ethic.”

He turned to look at Jove and Beryl. “Something I think he learned from you. And for three years I watched him work harder than anyone else at our company. And I knew that if I threatened to destroy his career,” he swallowed the bile rising in his throat at the way Beryl and Gaea looked at him with dawning horror, “he would, he would do just about anything. So I blackmailed him to come up here and to lie to you. All of you. And I thought it would be easy to watch him do it. But it wasn't. Turns out it's not easy to ruin someone's life once you find out how wonderful they are.”

He turned to Jason. “You have a beautiful family. Don't let this come between you. This was my fault.”

Jason stood there frozen. “Nico. . .”

Nico shook his head. “Jason, this was a business deal, and you held up your end, but now the deal is off. I'm sorry.”

He turned to where Octavian stood a few feet away. “And you, meet me at the dock. You're giving me a ride to the airport.”

Nico ran off, quick to avoid the backlash and as people began to murmur Beryl and Gaea led them outside to the reception area. Jason walked off the altar, watching where Nico had left through the doors and he wondered what had just happened.

Jove walked over to Jason. “What were you thinking?”

That I love him now. That I can’t let him leave when I love him. “I don't- I don't know.”

Beryl made her way over to him now that she had everyone outside. “Jason, you lied to us.”

Jason pushed them away with his hands. “Let me get my head on straight, okay?”

He walked a few feet before he turned and sighed. “I'll explain everything later. I'm sorry.”

 

Jason walked into the room they had shared for the weekend to find the suit Nico had worn was neatly folded and the necklace lay on top of it along with a rough draft of the book he’d offered Nico just last week along with a note in Nico’s handwriting.

 

_You were right. This book is special. I lied because I knew publishing meant I'd lose you as an assistant but... you have an extraordinary eye, and I'll make sure we buy this before I leave. Have an amazing life. You deserve it._

_~Nico_

 

Jason heard a knock on the door and turned to see Piper standing there. “Well, that was... crazy. You know, people are gonna be talking about this forever.”

Jason shook his head, still in a daze. “Yeah. Yeah. . .”

Piper looked at him cautiously. “Are you okay?”

Jason nodded. “Yeah. No. . .” he let out a long frustrated sigh, “I just feel. . .”

He crushed the note in his palm. “You know what the problem is? You see, the problem is that this man is a gigantic pain in my ass. First there's the whole leaving thing. I understand that. It's a sham wedding. It's kind of stressful. But then he goes ahead and he leaves this note. Because he doesn't have the decency, the humanity to do it to my face. Three years. Three years I work with this terrorist. Never once has he had a nice thing to say, and then he goes ahead and he writes this crap!”

Jason wasn’t even aware he was hyperventilating until Piper put a hand on his arm. “Jason.”

Jason threw his hands up. “None of that matters. We had a deal!”

“Jason.”

Jason shook his head, trying to slow his breathing. “Sorry. I'm sorry. I just. . . He just makes me a little crazy.”

Piper gave him a small smile. “Yeah. I can see that. So you're just gonna let him go?”

 

Nico sat beside Octavian with his suitcases at his feet. “So, what now?”

Octavian gave a contented sigh with a smirk. “Well. . . now that you're leaving voluntarily, it all becomes very civilised. Once we land in New York, you have 24 hours to head back to Canada.”

Nico nodded, glad that he didn’t see a boat coming after him. He was sure he’d stay if Jason asked.

 

Jason was bounding down the hill to the boat docks, passing the reception when his father stopped him.

“Jason, what's happening?”

Jason spun around to glare at him. “I’ve got to talk to him.”

Jove frowned. “Why would you do that?”

Gaea could see Jason advancing, his eyes impossibly stormy and she shouted. “Boys!”

They ignored her. Jason glared at his father as he continued walking. “It has nothing to do with you.”

Gaea tried to call them both back as Jove followed after him, only a few feet away. “Boys, stop it!”

Jove stopped Jason by putting a hand on his chest. “I'm not gonna let you do this.”

Jason shoved him away. “I'm not asking your permission.”

Gammy tried to call for them but as she did she clutched her chest and Beryl’s eyes widened.

“Jo! Jo!” She called.

Gammy clutched her chest and her eyes looked panic. “I think I'm having a heart attack.”

Jove easied Gammy into the grass. “Easy, easy. Mom?”

He turned to the crowd. “Get a doctor!”

As paramedics arrived on a helicopter to take her to mainland to a hospital Beryl, Jove, and Jason flew with her.

“Jason.” Gaea said weakly.

He held her hand and squeezed it to give her an indication he was listening. She looked between him and his father. “You two need to stop fighting. You'll never see eye to eye. But you're family.”

She turned to Jove, who for the first time in all the time Jason could recall, had tears welled in his eyes. “Promise me you'll stand by Jason. Even if... if you don't agree with him.”

Jove nodded. “I promise.”

Gaea turned back to Jason. “Jason. Promise me you'll work harder to be a part of this family.”

Jason nodded, eyes watering. “I will. I will, Gammy.”

Gammy nodded and closed her eyes. “Well, then, the spirits can take me.”

Beryl wiped her eyes sadly. “Oh, Gaea.”

Jason shook her hand. “Gammy?”

For a moment Jason thought he’d lost her, but after a moment Gaea opened one eye cautiously and she shrugged on the gurney.

“I guess they're not ready for me.I'm feeling much better, sonny. No need to take us to the hospital. Take us to the airport, please.”

Jove looked at her in shock. “Mother, what? Are you faking the heart attack?”

Jason sighed in exasperation. “Oh, come on!”

Gaea gave them a shameless look. “Well, it was the only way I could get you two to shut up and get us to the airport!”

The pilot spoke just then. “We're not authorised to take you to the airport.”

Gaea turned to the pilot with hard eyes. “Larry Ferris, don't make me call your mother.”

The pilot nodded. “You got it.” And he made a course for the airport.

 

Jason hopped off the helicopter and dialed his phone. “Okay. Come on, come on,  
come on, come on.”

Leo spoke on the other line. “Tower. Talk to me.”

Jason sighed with relief. “Leo! It's Jason Grace.”

“Hey, dude!”

Jason looked around at the single plane that was preparing for take off. “Hey. . . I have a little favour I need from you, buddy. . . Nico's on that plane. I gotta talk to him. Can you stop it?”

“Oh, yeah! I heard about your man bailin'. Drag-ola.”

Jason sighed in frustration. “Leo! I need you to stop the plane. Please.”

Leo sighed through the reciever. “I can't do that.”

Just as he spoke the plane began to race past them and off the tarmac.

Jason watched his chance flight into the air and head for New York City. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! Come on!”

“Oh, no.” Beryl said sadly.

“No!” Gammy shouted at the plane that took off.

Jove looked at the plane confused. “What's wrong?”

Beryl sighed. “Nico's on that plane.”

Gammy sighed, dejected. “And he didn't get to tell him.”

Jove’s eyebrows furrowed. “Tell him what?”

Beryl sighed, obviously frustrated at his lack of understanding. “That he loves him. So he could tell him that he loves him, too.”

Jove continued to look confused as Jason began to look for another avenue of transportation. Or one that would get him there in time. “But how does he…”

Beryl shook her head. “If he didn't love him, he wouldn't have left.”

Jove shook his head. “Am I the only one not getting this?”

Beryl just sighed. “Oh, Jo!”

Jason called Leo again when he got an idea. “Leo! Look down. Look down.”

Leo looked out of the transmissions tower. “Like... Oh, there you are! Sorry, man. There was nothing I could do.”

Jason shook his head. “Leo, do you still have Festus?”

Jason could see Leo tilt his head. “You mean my gyroplane?”

“Yeah.”

Leo seemed to consider it. “Yeah, sure. Why?”

Jason felt hope seize him. “I need a favor, Leo.”

 

Nico called Hazel when he got into his office on Monday.

“Hello?” Her voice sounded different, happier but different and Nico was thankful for it.

“Hi, is this Hazel?”

“Nico?!” Her voice was loud with disbelief.

He swallowed. “Hey. It’s been a long time since I called.”

“It’s been twelve years, Nico.” Her voice was soft and Nico could tell she was trying not to be hurt.

He sighed. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” She said, and Nico knew she meant it.

He heard children laughing in the background and his heart seized at the thought that she already had more than one child, Nico missing so much.

“Am I interrupting something?” He asked softly.

Hazel chuckled. “No, no, Nico and Bianca are just hyper from their naps.”

 _Nico and Bianca._ “You. . . You. . .” He stood in his office shocked.

“Yes, I named them after you and Bianca.” She said it with a smile in her voice.

Nico wasn’t sure what to say.

“Was there any reason you’re calling after all this time, Nico?” Hazel asked softly.

Nico shook his head to shake his thoughts into place. “I just wanted to know if maybe we could catch up. I’m being sent back to Canada.”

“I’d like that, Nico. I’d love that really.” Her voice was thick with emotion.

Nico hung up and steeled himself before he went out of his office.

He looked at Travis Stoll sitting in the cubicle closest to his office. He tried not to think too much of the absence of Jason.

“Travis? Travis,” Travis stood and when he did he looked at Nico with a shocked look. Nico sighed in frustration.

“Travis! I need for you to send the boxes in my office to this address, please. This one right here. This address right here. Okay? Can you do that?”

Travis nodded but he still looked at Nico in shock. “Yes. Sure.”

Nico nodded. “Good, all right. Thank you.”

Travis looked at him nervously.

“Mister di Angelo,” Travis pointed to something behind Nico and he realized belatedly that Travis was staring past him, not at him.

Nico rolled his eyes and turned. “Yes. What? What?”

Jason stood right across from him, heaving and gasping for breaths, but trying to look as maintained as possible.

“Hey.” Jason said softly.

Nico froze and everyone watched them intently. “Jason. Why are- why are you panting?”

Jason let out another breath. “Because I've been running.”

Nico nodded coolly. “Really. From Alaska?”

Jason nodded and took a step forward. “I need to talk to you.”

Nico felt nervousness and panic press into him and just like it had seized him at his own sister’s wedding it seized him now and he tried to flee like he always had.

“Yeah? Well, I don't have time to talk. I need to catch a 5:45 to Toronto.”

Nico turned to Travis and Jason looked at him, hoping he’d at least listen to what Jason had to say.

“Nico.” He said softly.

Nico tried to ignore him, to ignore that pull that he needed to run away from, the pull that told him he cared too much. “I need the boxes to go out today. I want to make sure everything is-”

Jason felt frustration swell in him. “Dammit, Nico! Stop talking! Gotta say something.”

Nico froze and turned to Jason, unable to look him in the eyes. “Okay.”

Jason huffed, finally satisfied that Nico was paying attention. “This will just take a sec.”

Nico folded his arms. “Fine. What?”

Jason plunged right in. “Three days ago, I loathed you. I used to dream about you getting hit by a cab. Or poisoned.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Oh, that's nice.”

Jason sighed. “I told you to stop talking,” Nico inclined that he go on, “then we had our little adventure up in Alaska and things started to change. Things changed when we kissed. And when you told me about your tattoo. Even when you checked me out when we were naked.”

Percy turned to Travis and mouthed, “Naked?” with a shocked look on his face.

Nico shook his head. “Well, I didn't see anything. . .”

“Yeah, you did,” Jason sighed again, taking the final step over the edge, “but I didn't realise any of this until I was standing alone. In a barn. . . without a husband. Now, you can imagine my disappointment when it suddenly dawned on me that the man I love is about to be kicked out of the country.”

Nico refused to look at him, refused to acknowledge the tears swelling in his eyes at the thought of telling Jason he’d go home. He would do that of course, because people like Nico needed to be alone, to be kept safe and away from people as good as Jason.

Jason continued. “So, Nico” he took a step toward Nico, “Marry me. Because I'd like to date you.”

Nico shook his head rapidly, trying to blink away tears that had already spilled over. He couldn’t look Jason in the eyes. “Trust me. You don't really want to be with me.”

Jason nodded, never as sure of anything as this decision. “Yes, I do.”

Nico shook his head, trying to wipe the tears out of his eyes discreetly. “See, the thing is, there is a reason why I've been alone all this time. I'm comfortable that way. And I think it would just be a lot easier if we forgot everything that happened and I just left.”

Jason thought about how it would have been easier if he’d stayed in his hometown and took over the family business. He thought about it would be easy if he had just quit his job at the publishing company and find somewhere where they appreciated him. He thought about how it was easier to pretend that he didn’t think about Nico’s lips every time he closed his eyes.

He nodded. “You're right. That would be easier.”

Nico looked at him for the first time and his voice cracked as he said, “I'm scared.”

Jason nodded and reached across the space between them and finally pulled Nico close. “Me, too.”

They kissed and everyone cheered and when they pulled away Jason wiped Nico’s tears and Nico chuckled.

“Aren't you supposed to get down on your knee or something?”

Jason smiled at him and went in for another kiss. “I'm gonna take that as a ‘yes’.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget that I am always taking submissions and prompts and AUs and headcanons! I hope you enjoyed this and have a cosmic day!


	32. Come Over If You Want It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the author had way too much fun with this random prompt from Aziciel and there's probably way more gay jokes than was strictly needed, but hey, I have to make Aziciel feel better somehow and a healthy amount of gay jokes is good, or at least this author thinks so.  
> Or, in which Nico makes the fatal mistake of getting drunk with do-good Will and ends up with a Grindr account and way more problems than he bargained for.
> 
>  
> 
> NOTE: Please note that everyone in this particular chapter is above the age of consent for sex and above the drinking age requirement of the US and that the author does not encourage anyone reading this to get drunk with their best friend and make a Grindr and end up falling in love with their professor.

_**Prompt:** 'the new professor is so cute but he looks familiar. oh yeah, he's the bloke i'm flirting in grindr' _

 

* * *

 

Believe it or not, it starts because Nico bought his weight in yogurt. 

 

So Nico and Reyna live in New York City and while Nico is going to the School of Visual Arts in New York and Reyna is working as an intern in a firm they live together. Sharing space is easy and fun, and Will, who Nico met in his Art History class, comes by and they all have about as much fun as college students in art school do.

So, one day after Nico was assigned quite possibly the most important assignment of his life he went home to find that Hazel and Will were sitting on the couch and laughing.

He raised an eyebrow. “Neither of you live here. How did you even get a key?”

Will shrugged. “Reyna let me in and then said she had something with Thalia.”

Nico sighed and dumped the easel, portfolio bag, canvases, and backpack all on the ground. 

Hazel sighed. “You’re working so hard, have you even eaten today?”

Nico shrugged. “I’ll go down to the corner store in a bit.”

Will got up and smiled at him. “Let’s go right now.”

Hazel waited for them as Nico and Will went to the store and as they stood in the dairy aisle Will smiled excitedly. 

“Yogurt is on sale! Awesome.”

Nico looked down at his basket which was empty. “Should we get it?”

Will nodded. “It’s good for you.”

Nico looked at the rows of yogurt. “How much should we get?”

Will gave him a mischievous grin. “All of it.

 

Hazel looked at both of them as Will and Nico dumped the yogurt onto the dining table.

Hazel raised an eyebrow. “Let me guess, a sale?”

Nico shrugged and Will smiled at her. “Are you going to help us eat it all?”

Hazel shook her head fondly. “Sorry, but I have plans with Frank for dinner.”

She pulled on her coat and left, leaving them both to look down at the ridiculous amount of yogurt that they would have to eventually consume. There was definitely not enough space in the fridge. 

Will looked at Nico excitedly. “Yogurt eating contest?”

Nico raised an eyebrow. “Somehow I am pretty sure that yogurt is not something meant to be eaten in large quantities.” 

Will grinned. “What if we spike it with alcohol?”

Now, that is certainly as good as it sounds. Which is to say, not at all. But Nico had a project he had three weeks to do without any idea of what to do and he had a bill of debt for school that would be hilariously outrageous if it wasn’t so sad, so alcohol on a Friday with his best friend and copious amounts of yogurt sounds like a great idea.

 

The yogurt is a bad idea. 

Nico discovers this after they finish off a bottle of whiskey and what has to be fifty gallons of yogurt. Needless to say Nico and Will are tipsy and anyone who walked in on them can realize this. Will and Nico are spread across the kitchen floor, eating Lucky Charms straight out of the box for no damn reason when Will laughs and turns to Nico.

“You need to get laid.” Will slurs. 

Nico sighs forlornly. “I have school. I have a job. Don’t have time for that. ‘Sides, don’t think anyone would be particularly interested.”

Will laughs giddily. “You can still say big words. What’s up with that?”

Will forces Nico to drink a small bottle of cognac and once Nico can tell it’s run out he’s dizzy, warm, and has, for the moment, forgotten that he is a college student with a shitty job and debts he can’t hope to pay off. 

Will slumps against Nico and sighs happily. “I know what would help you.”

Nico makes a noise. 

Will pulls out Nico’s phone from the hoodie he’s wearing. “We should make you a Grindr.”

Nico looks over at him and instead of being closed off and cautious the way he is when he’s sober he’s light, warm, and he trusts Will with his _life_. He also trusts Will with his pets. But Nico is pretty sure he doesn’t have pets. So instead he trusts Will with his phone, which is basically the same thing, right?

“What’s that?” Nico asks, dreamily. 

Will grins and honestly cackles in Nico’s ear. 

Will plays around with his phone and when Nico looks down there’s an orange glowing screen and Will is laughing. 

“It’s for gay men. That’s how you get _laid_.”

Nico chuckles. “Don’t need to get laid. I need a good job.”

Will laughs out loud. “What you need a _blow_ job.”

Nico can’t argue with that so he lets Will input all his information. Will asks him what he would like for his profile picture and Nico chooses the selfie he hates the least. Once it’s all done Will giggles and turns on their location. For a moment nothing happens. Until something does. There’s an alert and Will cheers obnoxiously and Nico turns to him. 

“What?”

Will smiles slyly at him. “You have a-” _hic_ “-gay in the area.”

Will shows him the photo but Nico bats it away before he can get a glimpse. “‘M drunk. ‘S not a good idea.”

Will scoffs. “Please. Live a little. A little-” _hic_ “-lovin’ never hurt anybody.”

Nico looks over at Will for a moment before he takes the phone and sends out a message.

He looks up at Will once he’s sent it and his eyes go wide at his recklessness.

Will is laughing uproariously. “You did it!”

Nico looks down at the blurry words on the screen with wide and awed eyes. “Yeah.”

The words continue to be blurry and Nico wonders if maybe he should get glasses. But then he moves the hair out of his eyes and he sees the text clear. 

 

**To: JG1989**

**hey i lost my underwear can i see yours ;)**

 

Will looks over and whoops for Nico’s flirting skills, which they will both regret the next day. But for now Nico is flirting with some stranger and he’s drunk and he loves the feeling of recklessness that accompanies this experience. Will and Nico go through three more individual yogurt packages and a half a bottle of vodka when they hear the ding notification of Nico’s phone.

Nico is quick to pick it up from where it lay on the floor at his feet. He is also in a rush to get it because if Will gets his hands on his phone Nico will end up someone’s boyfriend. 

 

**To: GhostKing92**

**Sorry, but I’m not wearing any. . .**

 

Nico chokes on the spoonful of yogurt he currently has in his mouth and Will takes the phone from him while he’s choking. 

“Let me see what he said!”

Will looks at the screen and then laughs uncontrollably for a few minutes before he comes back online. 

“You have to come up with something, Nico!” He encourages.

Nico snorts. “Like what?”

Will considers this before a look of realization lights his face. “Got it!”

Will types for a few moments, messing up and going back to correct himself and when he finishes he hits send and Nico takes the phone to see what he’s sent. 

 

**To: JG1989**

**Mind if I check? ;)**

 

Nico chuckles and puts the phone down, waiting for the next text. 

Will and Nico go through two more packages of yogurt before Reyna walks into the apartment to find them by propped against the kitchen cabinets, sitting on the floor with Nico’s phone at his feet and more than thirty little tubs of yogurt sprawled across the floor. Reyna sighs. The things she has to put up with are without reward and she’s lucky Nico and Will aren’t nearly as bad as when Reyna stayed with Leo and Percy for a month.  

“What are you both doing?”

Will smiles up at her and while he might be going for a winning smile Reyna sees a droopy, drunken smile. She is fairly sure that the entire room smells like cheap alcohol and regrets. 

“Beautiful Reyna! How are you?” Reyna doesn’t mind this part so much. Part of Will being a sweet guy is that no matter sober or drunk he is always giving Reyna compliments and while she certainly doesn’t need them, well, who can really feel bad when someone calls you gorgeous nearly daily. She knows it, and she is secretly glad others do too.

She rolls her eyes. “Fine, Will. I see you’re drunk.”

Will looks at her with a look of such exaggerated shock and hurt Reyna knows he’s already drank too much. “Me?! Drunk? Why,” _hic_   “Reyna, we just had a tiny sip of the sweetest of juices!”

Reyna holds up the cognac, whiskey, and half empty bottle of vodka. “Really? Just a tiny sip? Also why are there Lucky Charms all over the floor?”

Will seems to be denying any involvement in the consumption of alcohol and  Lucky Charms so Reyna shakes her head fondly and pulls him up. He wobbles for a moment and then sways drunkenly, but Reyna manages to handle her friend all the same. 

“Come on, sunshine, time for you to sleep on the couch.”

Will smiles dreamily at her. “Couch. . . Sounds so nice.”

She leads him over and puts a blanket over him and in moments Will is passed out. Reyna leaves him nothing for his inevitable headache, but that’s more so her revenge for the mess she’s surely going to have to clean once she’s managed Nico into bed.

She walks over to the kitchen to find Nico staring at his phone with an exaggerated amount of focus. 

“Hey, what’s up?”

Nico grumbles. “Stupid guy didn’t text me.”

Reyna chuckles. “I wasn’t aware that you met anyone new.”

Nico waves it off, his hand flailing drunkenly instead of nonchalantly, which must be the effort he was going for. 

“Will. . . grindr and there was flirting. . . pants.” He says, and all the words are disconnected as though he was thinking a whole thought and not saying it all out loud. 

Reyna chuckles and pulls him up. “Come on. You have to go lay down.”

Nico slumps against her, his skin hot from the alcohol and his breath rank with dairy and alcohol, a terrible combination Reyna hopes to never smell again. 

Nico grumbles. “Don’t want sleep. . . want a text back.”

Reyna snorts and flings one of his arms around her shoulder and leads him to his room. “Don’t we all.”

She carries his weight and once she lays him in bed she takes his phone out of his hand, which earns her a sleepy protest, and puts it to charge on his bedside table. She hears a ping of a notification and when she looks she sees he has a message from Grindr. She sighs and tucks him in, Nico already dozing off and mumbling in Italian. She tucks him in snugly and he gets a happy, drunken smile on his face.

She rolls her eyes fondly. “The things I do for you.”

She looks over to where the message is still on the window of his phone and she shakes her head, wondering how badly this will backfire on Nico. 

 

Nico hates Will. Nico hates Will and he hates yogurt and he hates cognac. 

The first thing Nico does when he wakes up that Saturday is vomit into the toilet. It’s a violent heaving that Nico is pretty sure it used only for hungover people and exorcising demons out of people and once he’s done and he’s brushed his teeth he silently vows to never drink with Will ever again. Few people have survived the experience and Nico is just glad to get away partially unscathed.

Nico walks into the kitchen to find Will has his head on the table and Reyna is making breakfast for them.

Reyna turns to him and smiles. “Good morning. Feeling better?”

Nico glares at her and goes over to the coffee pot that’s already brewing. “Not even close.”

Reyna chuckles and sets out eggs and tortillas and Will looks up at them. “What even happened last night? We just had yogurt.”

Reyna rolls her eyes. “And a bottle of cognac and a bottle of whiskey and half a bottle of vodka. And maybe Lucky Charms. But those were mostly on the floor instead of in your mouth so I can’t be sure.”

Will sighs and puts his head back down. “No wonder I feel like I got hit by a bus.”

Nico sat down beside him and shook his head. “I just hope I didn’t text anyone I shouldn’t have.”

Once, a few weeks prior to their latest drinking session, Nico texted Octavian and told him he wanted to get back together and the next morning Nico woke up in Octavian’s apartment and it took his an entire week to explain to Octavian that he had no actual interest in him. Short of a restraining order Nico did everything possible to stay away from him. That is a can of worms Nico never wants to ever open again.

Will lifts up his head. “You joined Grindr. I got a notification on my phone this morning.”

Nico shakes his head. “First, how did I get a Grindr? And second, I don’t even want to know why you have a Grindr.”

Will shrugs and smirks. “Gotta get out there somehow.”

So they have breakfast and Nico thanks Reyna for getting him to bed and then he goes to lay down and he checks his phone for any texts and finds the message. 

 

**To: GhostKing92**

**[insert number] why don’t you text me and find out?**

 

Nico stares at the message bewildered and his headache comes back with a vengeance. 

He lays there until Will pokes his head in. 

“Your couch is super uncomfortable. Can I hang out with you here?”

Nico rolls his eyes. “I should say no, just for what you did last night.”

Will shakes his head and plops down next to Nico on his bed. “No way, we both know that Drunk Will is an insatiable, meddling do-gooder. I cannot be held responsible for what he does.”

Nico shrugs and closes his eyes. “Either way, Drunk Will got me to text a guy and he sent me a number so we’re never doing this again.”

Will shot up. “Wait, you got that guy’s number? When did this happen?”

Nico shrugs. “Late last night early this morning, hard to tell which.”

Will leaps over Nico and steals his phone and Nico shoots up, trying to ignore the way the room spins when he does so.

Nico looks at Will. “Will, give me the damn phone.”

Will seems to be looking at his messages and chuckles. “Drunk Nico has serious game.”

Nico frowns. “Drunk Nico is a desperate heathen and an unhealthy sex machine. We are not going to text that guy.”

Will looks at him pleadingly. “But he’s a college professor and he’s only twenty-six! Not to mention his cheekbones are straight up ridiculous. Like, Greek God level hot.”

Nico sighs. “No, Will. Now give me the damn phone.”

And here is the moment that Nico sees Will has two options. Will could give him the phone, let this all be over and done with and Nico will uninstall the app and everything will be over. Or. . . Or, Will can run from the room, texting frantically, calling out for Reyna to protect him while Nico runs after him.

Will is certainly never boring and when he bolts from the room, fingers tapping keys he shouts.

“Reyna! Help me!”

Reyna looks up from where she’s sitting with Thalia at the kitchen table. 

“Are you trying to set up Nico again?”

Will hides behind her as Nico crashes into the kitchen. 

“Will, give me the damn phone.”

Will continues to text. “No!”

Nico tries to run around the table in time to catch him but by then Will is on the other side of the table and Thalia is looking at them with amusement. 

She turns to Reyna. “Are they always like this?”

Reyna sighs forlornly. “Ever since they broke up. Will and Nico are children and I suppose I have to be their mother.”

Will smiles down at her, momentarily forgetting he’s trying to stay away from Nico. “Hey we appreciate that. Except you’re not our mom. I’m not sure I can handle a mommy kink.”

Nico momentarily shudders in disgust but while Will is looking at Reyna fondly he tackles Will to the ground, who clutches the phone like a lifeline.

Nico tries to pry it away from him. “Will, damn you, let go of the phone!”

Will struggles to hit send and once he does he lets go of the phone and Nico is tempted to hit him with it. 

Nico looks at what Will sent from his texting window. 

 

**To: Sexy Stranger**

**Hey, sorry, last night was a bit crazy, maybe we can meet up for coffee soon! :)**

 

Nico sighs and just lays on the floor. 

Will sits next to Reyna and Thalia and Nico lays there. 

“Will, why?”

Will smiles down at him. “You’ll be thanking me soon.”

When sober Nico cannot flirt for shit, which may be due to the fact that he was closeted until he was sixteen, or maybe his social ineptness or a multitude of things, but Nico has never been a good flirt. With Will he never had to because Will did it enough for the both of them, but a stranger is a completely different case. Nico will be expected to keep up banter and be charming and mysterious, in short, be everything he isn’t.

Which is why it shocks him when he gets a message back just a few seconds later. 

 

**From: Sexy Stranger**

**How about we get to know each other? Can’t go out with people willy nilly. This is New York City after all and I’d like to know you’re not a serial killer.**

 

Nico looks at the text, dumbfounded, and he looks up at Will. 

“Why did you input him as Sexy Stranger?”

Will gives him a knowing smile. “Trust me, if you saw his face, you would too. Plus this lets you have a conversation starter, find out his name.”

Nico sighs and looks over at Reyna. “Why did you let him in?”

Reyna sighs. “It’s kinda like taking in a stray.”

Will makes a noise of indignation. “Hey! I am way better than a stray!”

Thalia chuckles and stands. “And on that note, I am leaving. See you later, Reyna.”

She gives Reyna a goodbye kiss that makes something in Nico twinge with longing and he looks away quickly. 

He looks down at the text and decides that maybe taking a plunge is good. He texts back.

 

**To: Sexy Stranger**

**Well at the risk of sounding totally boring, can I have your name? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours**

 

Nico has no idea where the flirtatious attitude is coming from but this is easy, flirting without attachments, and if he just keeps it simple maybe he can do this and even manage one date. 

Thalia leaves and Reyna leaves for a late shift at the firm and Will and Nico are left alone again.

Will eventually leaves and when he does he calls Hazel and Frank to see if they want to come over. They agree and come over in less than half an hour.

He opens the door to find his sister is grinning winningly at him. “Hi!”

Behind her Frank smiles at Nico. “Hey, Nico.”

Nico gives them both a small smile. 

Hazel is Nico’s best friend. Every time he sees her she is happy to see him and while he certainly doesn’t show it like he wished he could, he loves Hazel and he is positive that she knows that. Frank is Hazel’s package deal and while Nico and Frank certainly didn’t get along in high school when Nico was awkward and distant and scared Frank, he feels like they have a healthy mutual fear of each other to base their relationship off of. Frank is scared Nico could poison him in his sleep, Hamlet style, and Nico is afraid that Frank could crush him to death with his bulk and build. So really Nico is glad everything worked itself out.

He looks at the bags Frank is carrying. 

“What’s in those?”

Hazel grins. “Snacks. And a few movies. Reyna told us you were hungover.”

Frank chuckles. “And that Will convinced you to drink two and a half bottles of alcohol.”

Nico sighs. “Yes. Come on in.”

 

It isn’t until the next morning when Hazel, Frank, and Nico are having breakfast and Jason sends him a good morning photo of himself that Nico’s heart stops and he actually ends up dropping the phone. 

Hazel picks up the phone and looks at the screen and her eyes go wide.

“Nico. . . Why do you have a photo of Professor Grace on your phone?”

Frank looks between them. “Who is that?”

Hazel puts down the phone and looks at Nico who is staring at space in shock. She turns back to Frank. 

“He’s Nico’s Art History professor. From college.”

Frank drops his waffle on the floor just as Nico drops his head on the table.

Hazel looks at the phone again to make sure she hasn’t imagined the photo. 

“Well shit.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, people, what did you think of this??? :D   
> I tried my hand at a more comedic approach to the prompts and writing and I hope everyone liked it!  
> Don't forget that prompts are always accepted and have a cosmic day!


	33. Somewhere In Neverland

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So there is literally no reason for this prompt other than I was thinking about it and I just really wanted to write this. Title from All Time Low's Somewhere in Neverland. 
> 
> Or, in which Nico is sad, Jason is sad, and eventually they both become happy.

_**Prompt:** Nico and Jason having their first child _

 

* * *

 

**_Say goodbye to the halls and the classes_ **

**_Say hello to a job and the taxes_ **

**_The weekends with old friends spilling into 9 to 5 routine_ **

 

When Nico was younger he thought a lot about family. As a kid he had always wished he had a brother and for a while he had even tried to convince his parents of that. But they never had more than Bianca and Nico. And while Nico would have liked to have more siblings, a large Italian family like his cousins, he knew that all he needed was Bianca and his mother and his father. They were never close, Nico and his father, but his father hovered in the background, always there when Nico wanted something but never there when he needed something, and that was fine with Nico. 

The first time he thought about his father in depth was Father’s Day when he was eight. At school he learned about Father’s Day and he’d asked his mother if she could convince his father to have breakfast with the entire family there to give him gifts and talk, like Nico thought a family should. But Father’s Day came and Bianca sat across from him, nervous and worried for Nico, and Maria sat at the end of their small and cozy dining table, glancing at Nico and the clock every few seconds. 

His mother put a hand on his shoulder when the clock chimed at noon. “Maybe next year, dear.”

And she walked away, taking Bianca with her. But Nico sat, perfectly gift wrapped watch in a box and he tried to blink tears out of his eyes but they didn’t leave, they just spilled over. He curled his fists and sat there. 

When Bianca went to comfort him an hour later she didn’t find him there. All she found was a crushed box, stained with tears. 

 

Jason hated his stepmother. 

He hated her ever since his mother had given his father permission to take him. When Jason was five he was handed over to his father along with Thalia. Thalia, being sixteen, had run away with a boy Jason remembered as Luke. Luke and Thalia had run away and never came back, and they left Jason. 

“I’ll be back for you someday.” Thalia had promised him. 

And he was only five years old, but of all the memories he had, he remembered her the most. Her black hair and her necklaces and her pale but beautiful face. 

Thalia and Luke were Jason’s family. 

Jason was young and impressionable but he never forgot them. He turned six, and he remembered. He turned seven and he remembered. He turned eight and he remembered. He turned nine and it was the first year his father and stepmother had thrown a party he was able to attend. 

He had been dressed by a nanny he wouldn’t be able to recall later, and after she was done he sat obediently in his room while he waited for Hera to tell him when he was allowed to move. She came to get him and she held his hand and she took him down the stairs. His father and his stepmother tugged him along with them and years later when Jason found photos of them, he’d remember how much a picture perfect image they must have looked like. At the moment Jason’s only nine-year-old worry was to make his father proud. He stayed silent and he spoke only when spoken to. He still tall and proud like a Grace man should and he maintained a polite smile the entire evening. 

At the end of the evening he sat in his room while his father left and he was left to listen to Hera criticize his behaviour the entire evening. When she left the room he went to his father’s study.

“Father,” Jason whispered into the dimly lit study.

He looked over to find that his father was kissing a woman. And it wasn’t Hera. Jason took a step back in shock as his father turned to glower. 

“What have I said about this study, child?” His father growled.

Jason felt a sort of panic grip him. “I-I-”

His father turned him around and pushed him out of the study. 

He stood there for a moment, paralyzed by the young woman and her lipstick on his father’s collar. He thought about Hera and how she must feel and then Jason remembered their terse conversations. He remembered his stepmother’s harsh eyes and voice and how she never kissed his father. He thought about how they never had dinner as a family because they weren’t even really a family. 

He turned to find Hera standing right beside him. 

He whispered. “Did you know there’s a wo-”

Hero glared at him. “You’ll find, young man, that few things go on in this house without me knowing about them. I thought I told you to go to bed.”

Jason immediately put his head down and scuttled to his room. He shut the door and immediately went to his bed where he tried very hard not to cry. But he looked over at the photo of Luke and Thalia and how they had thrown five year old Jason in the air and they were all laughing and tears spilled over. And maybe he hated Hera and he hated his father, but he hated Thalia the most for leaving him behind. He fell asleep wondering where in the world his family could be and if he had one at all. 

 

**_Tell me how you feel over and done with_ **

**_Like your life is a map with no compass to guide,_ **

**_At the bar drinkin’ way too much_ **

**_We sing along to "Forever Young"._ **

 

Piper fell in love with Jason when he was sixteen. 

The only problem was that Jason couldn’t love her back. It wasn’t because they didn’t love each other, because they did. But Piper had always had this idea of what their relationship could be like. While Jason certainly wanted to live up to those expectations he fell short. He had tried so hard and he was trying so hard to be the man his father approved of and he tried to keep his stepmother happy, but after trying for so long to make his family happy he couldn’t keep trying with Piper. It wasn’t that she asked for too much either. She asked that they spend a reasonable amount of time together and talk about everything and share their feelings. But Jason couldn’t share his feelings. He couldn’t tell her about how every day he longed to run away like Thalia did, to run away with someone who loved him completely and who he trusted with his life. He couldn’t tell her about he wished he was as brave as Thalia but wasn’t. He could only explain to her that he wasn’t who he thought she needed. 

So Piper broke up with him and he accepted that. And after her hurt subsides, and his hurt subsides, they’re friends. And after that they were much happier. Piper learned about everything, and even if she didn’t love him like she had, she promised to stay with him, and help him be brave with time. He thought it was the best thing he could ask for. He doesn’t ever mention how much he misses Thalia every day. He doesn’t ever mention how that loss hurts him the most. 

 

When Nico was sixteen he realized he didn’t like girls. 

He realized this when he kissed Reyna at a party. It is, ironically, how she finds out that she doesn’t like boys. 

So they were at a party. Nico having just confessed not a week ago to Percy Jackson that he used to love him. And Reyna took him to a party to meet some of her friends. They end up drunk and sitting on the stoop of Nico’s home, talking all night. They talked about how they want different things. Nico talked about how much he wanted to have a family. He was drunk and so the words flowed easily from his lips and Reyna loved listening as he explained how he wanted to have children and a spouse who loved him and a warm house where he imagined his mother and sister sitting with him as he holds his baby and his spouse loves him and there’s warmth. 

Reyna loved the idea. 

She kisses him, promising that one day maybe she can give him that. But they kissed and there was no spark and Nico confessed how he always imagined himself with a man and Reyna confessed how she always imagined herself with a woman and they both began to laugh at the irony of the situation until they sober up. Bianca found them on the stoop and she asks what they’re laughing about and Nico can’t imagine any other time that would be the best time to tell her, so he confessed that he was gay and Bianca smiled at him and they all sat out on the porch, laughing and talking and being sixteen (for Bianca, eighteen). Nico looked up at the stars towards the end of their night and he thought about how it felt like he’d be sixteen forever. But then the sunrise came and the stars disappeared and he looked over to find that Bianca and Reyna had fallen asleep leaning against each other. Nico isn’t in love with anyone, but he loves them the most and he knows he always will. 

 

**_So here we go again_ **

**_Wishin’ we could start again_ **

 

Nico is seventeen when Bianca and his mother die in a crash crash. Nico had told them right before they left that he loved them, so he’s thankful for that, but the worst part is that Maria and Bianca don’t die on impact, a merciful death. Maria does, which Nico will forever thank whatever higher power for. But Bianca is alive for three hours after the crash.. 

Nico is running through the hospital, Reyna and Will following at his skirttails as he weaves in between people. Maria and Bianca crashed half an hour before and Nico is rushing, adrenaline pumping through him and as Reyna and Will follow him he finally reaches the room and he’s hesitant to walk in, because whatever happens, Nico knows nothing good can come of it. 

Reyna stops Will just a few yards away, giving Nico the privacy she knows he’ll need and he turns to them before he walks in and they both give him solemn nods. 

He walks in to find his father is standing by Bianca’s bedside. She looks worse than death and her once beautiful face is hideously marred. Nico still thinks she’s the most beautiful person he’s ever seen in his life. 

He looks at his father, who he hasn’t actually seen in the flesh in five years. Meetings and business trips and phone calls mattering more than his own family. 

“Where’s mom?” He asks, in a shakey voice that is so cracked and marred with sadness he doesn’t think it’s his own. 

His father looks down. “Your mother died on impact.”

And that hits Nico harder than anything. He knows he won’t see his mother again, and that reality dawns on him. He won’t have any more Christmases, or birthdays, or Thanksgivings, or anything. That idea of them all gathered around Nico as he hugs his baby and his husband close suddenly vanishes and there’s nothing. He just stares at his father and for one horrifying moment he wishes it had been his father. He wishes that the person who took this family the least serious of all had been the one to die. But Nico was raised by his mother, and she loved this man and she always tried to teach him how to love him too, and now that she’s gone Nico just feels emptiness, not even enough energy to feel bitter about his father. 

His father turns to the sleeping Bianca in the hospital bed and Nico is horrified by how she looks. 

“They say she won’t make it into the night.”

And then Nico is falling. Nico is falling and he manages to land in a chair before his knees completely give out and he thinks about his father shouldn’t be here. He remembers that Father’s Day and all the Christmases and Thanksgivings and birthdays and Easters and New Years that followed and how his father was a bystander in his life and their little family they created away him. 

“Can you leave me with her?” He asks, silently, empty, shocked. 

His father looks like he wants to say more but doesn’t, then he walks out, his expensive Italian shoes hitting the linoleum tiles and making the only noise in the room except for the incessant beep of monitors. 

He takes Bianca’s hand. “Hey, Bi, it’s me. Please wake up.”

His eyes pool with tears and he looks as the gashes in her face where the glass must have hit her and he feels her hand with all of it’s scratches and scars and Nico can’t tell if he wants her to live through this pain, but his mother is dead and he needs one of them to survive this, to live through this so Nico isn’t left alone in a house that would otherwise be too big, and alone with a father he has grown to hate. 

His tears spill and he grips her hand tighter. “Please, Bianca. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up from this. Please, Bianca. Please.”

And he feels her squeeze his hand and he looks up to find her smiling. Nico is relieved he can see her smile through all of the things that now mar her face. 

“Don’t cry, Nico.”

He cries anyway. “They say you won’t make it.”

Bianca just pats his hands. “It’s time for me to go, Nico.”

Nico doesn’t believe that. “I don’t believe that. You can fight this, Bianca. You were always the strong one.”

Bianca shakes her head. “No, Nico, you were. You’ll learn that soon.”

Nico thinks this is the most fucked up way the universe could teach him a life lesson. 

“Please, Bianca. Fight this.”

Bianca looks at him for a moment before she smiles. “You said you wanted mom and I there when you have a husband and a baby?”

He nods through his tears. 

She smiles but her eyes look far away now, distant. “We’ll always be there, Nico. That warmth is us.”

Nico’s dreams for the future get ripped out from under him in less than twelve hours and he holds her hand desperately. 

“I love you, Bianca. Please stay here, stay with me.”

Bianca shakes her head. “di Angelo. . . that’s funny. Angels. I can’t stay, Nico. It’s time I go home.”

And she lets go and her heartbeat goes through the roof and the Nurse and doctors rush in. They try to stabilize her and they cart her away to surgery but Nico knows, when he looks at her while she’s being carted away, that she’s already gone. 

He goes over to the waiting room where Reyna and Will are sitting and they look up at him hopefully. He can’t even say one word before his tears choke him and Will and Reyna are there to catch him as he falls to his knees, bawling, in that sterile, impersonal waiting room. 

Maria di Angelo dies at 3:45 p.m. on a Tuesday in October.

Bianca di Angelo dies three hours later. 

Nico refuses to go to the funeral. Instead, he breaks every frame in the house. He goes through the house and looks to find that all of the photos now seem to mock him. He throws them and screams and cries and he isn’t sure what to do but he knows that this is all he knows how to do now. He’s so alone and he knows that he will be for the rest of his life. Reyna and Will find him, five hours later, huddled in a corner, crying and holding the most recent photo of him with Maria and Bianca. And even if Nico’s heart feels like it’s physically broken, he thinks about how he might not be completely alone, and clings to that.

 

**_Wendy run away with me_ **

**_I know I sound crazy_ **

**_Don’t you see what you do to me?_ **

**_I wanna be your lost boy_ **

**_Your last chance, a better reality_ **

 

Four years later while Nico was at university and he’d met Hazel and he learned all about her and they grew close. He loves her and while it’s been four years since his sister and mother died he learned how control his emotions and mourn in a way that’s healthy for him. Hazel is kind and she is sweet and she was the result of an affair Nico’s father had when he was born. Nico isn’t bitter towards Hazel. She only wants to love him and know him and soon they are as close as Nico had been with Bianca and while that scares him, he knows that he’s allowed to love the things that scare him. He finds that with her and Frank, for the first time in years, he can imagine a family. It’s different this time around and there’s sadness that fades at the corners of his dream, but Nico will take what he can get.

When he meets Hazel and Frank he also meets Piper. Piper who is kind and sweet and charming and who looks at Reyna with a look in her eyes Nico recognizes as love. Because of Piper Nico also meets Leo. Leo who Nico understands, because Nico sees that he hides behind humor, and while he certainly doesn’t call Leo out on it, he understands. Finally he meets Jason Grace. 

Jason Grace comes into Nico’s life in a whirlwind of emotion, caring and kind and so careful and considerate in a way Nico hadn’t felt since Percy. Nico is thankful for Jason and eventually found in a friend in him. Eventually they become more than friends. 

Nico falls in love for the first time in five years. 

 

**_We’ll start a life of the plain and the simple_ **

**_Of great times with far better people_ **

**_And weekends with our friends_ **

**_Laughing about the wine that stains their teeth_ **

 

Jason falls in love with Nico when Nico is twenty-one. Jason was twenty-three. 

Jason and Nico got married when Nico was twenty-five and Jason was twenty-seven. 

Their marriage scares Jason the most. 

He’s worried he’ll end up like his father, with guilt in his bones and lying in his DNA Jason is worried he’ll leave Nico, or worse, force him to stay. Jason met Thalia when he was seventeen and it turns out that Thalia and Luke got married. They’re happy, but when Thalia had come to get Jason when he was a child his stepmother had threatened her and she never came back because she couldn’t.

But she finds him and she tells him everything, including the fact that she and Luke are married, and Jason is relieved that she’s happy. 

The night before his wedding he asks her about her marriage, about how much she loves Luke and how their marriage works and if she’s ever worried. Jason explains that he’s afraid. He’s afraid they’ll build a family that he can’t love or that one day won’t love, and he worries about Nico and his happiness and what family means to him and if it’ll ever just be the two of them. Thalia talks to him, explains her feelings, and calms down his anxieties and the next day Jason is standing at the end of the aisle, sure as there are stars in the sky that he belongs with Nico. He cries and even if Nico denies it years later, Jason knows he does too.

 

Nico says no the first time Jason asks in front all their friends and family. 

He’s scared. 

Nico knew that Jason would ask for something like that eventually, being as committed to one another as they are. But that dream about the baby and the husband isn’t there anymore. He sees himself with a family but he can’t see a baby or a husband and that might be the result of eight years of mourning, but it just never comes back to him, and he can’t say yes to becoming a family if Nico isn’t even sure he wants one. 

Jason respects him and his decision even if Nico can see the hurt in his eyes and when Jason asks him when they’re older, Nico says yes. 

Nico goes to Hazel the very next day after the proposal and asks her about Frank, about how she feels about him and how she feels about her newborn son, Sammy. She explains the feelings and Nico explains that he can’t see it, can’t imagine a life like hers even if it was something he once desperately wanted. 

She patted his knee sympathetically. 

“If it’s not for you, then it’s not for you.” And Bianca told him that when he told her he wasn’t interested in women and that stings like a phantom pain, but he moves on and considers her words.

He talks to Will, who hasn’t married, but is happy just the way he is and he asks Will about it feels to be unengaged and happy and if Nico is making a mistake. Will explains to Nico that if he has doubts he’s obligated to end it, to not follow through unless he’s absolutely sure.

He goes to Reyna and Piper, who had gotten engaged the year before and he sits and talks with Reyna about that night when they were sixteen and he told her about how he wanted a baby and a husband and a life full of warmth. 

She smiles at him. “You can want different things now that you’re older.”

He shakes his head and he sighs. “What if I can’t. . . What if I don’t love my kid? What if I end up like my father?”

And that’s really his ultimate unsaid fear, isn’t it?

They get married six months later and Nico has never been more sure of anything in his life.

 

**_We’ll talk about how your parents separated and_ **

**_How you don’t wanna make the same mistakes as them_ **

**_I’ll say it’s all about stickin’ it out_ **

**_And trying to feel forever young_ **

  
  


They have their first big fight the first time Jason brings up adopting a child. 

Jason suggested after a long day at work as a history teacher. 

“Maybe we could, if you’d like the idea.” He mentioned as they ate dinner at a table Jason felt was empty. 

Nico froze. “We talked about this.”

It’s been ten months since they’ve been married and Jason brought it up four months before. 

Jason sighed. “No. We didn’t. I suggested it and you shut down.”

Nico huffed, putting down his fork. “I did not. I just don’t think we’re ready.”

Jason dropped his cutlery abruptly and threw up his hands. “We’re not ready? Or you’re not?”

Nico gave him an angry look. “Is there a difference? We shouldn’t adopt a baby if we’re not both all in.”

Jason shook his head. “You know, sometimes it feels like I’m the only one who’s all in.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Jason sighed, putting his head in hands. “You know what I mean, Nico. Every time I even mention the idea you cringe. It’s like you don’t want it to ever be anything more than just the two of us!”

Nico glowered at him. “We haven’t even been married for a year, Jason.”

Jason scoffed. “It’s been going on to six years, Nico. We’ve been living together for three.”

Jason looked at him then. “What are you so afraid of?”

Nico didn’t look back. “The same thing you were afraid of when we got married.”

And Jason froze. Because that . . . that meant a lot more than Jason knew. Jason had nearly called off the wedding, paranoid he’d make the same mistakes like his father, make the same decisions and drive away the only person he’d loved. 

Jason sighed. “You’re afraid you’ll be like your father.”

Nico got up abruptly and he left the dining table to pull on his coat and slammed the front door as he left out of the apartment. 

Jason was left with two cold plates of food and a sinking feeling in his stomach. 

 

_**So here we go again** _

_**Wishin’ we could start again** _

_**Wendy run away with me** _

_**I know I sound crazy** _

_**Don’t you see what you do to me?** _

_**I want to be your lost boy** _

_**Your last chance, a better reality** _

 

Nico came back that night to find Jason sitting at the edge of his side of the bed, looking out the window at the city. He quietly changed and got into bed even as Jason continued to sit there.

Nico lay there silent for a moment before Jason spoke.

“You know, you’d never do that to our kid.” Jason said quietly. 

He turned to look at Nico and gave him a sad look. “You would never do that to them. I wouldn’t let you.”

Nico shook his head. “You don’t know that.”

Jason turned to look back out the window. “But I do. I wouldn’t have married you if I thought that was the type of person you were.”

Nico lay there for a moment. “I’m scared.”

Jason turned back to him and thought about little Jason, only nine, but so desperate for his father’s approval. He thought of little Jason alone in his room, crying every night for a sister they kept away from him. He thought of little Jason all alone in those grand and large dining rooms, alone except for a nanny that was supposed to be a substitute for the parents that should have been there. He thought about little Jason only seven, but blowing out the candles to his birthday cake all alone, not even a nanny there to keep him company. He thought about when he was sixteen he’d gotten so drunk just to forget he was alone for his birthday, until his friends had come over the next day, caring and kind and telling him they loved him. He thought of how his father never hugged him, or told him he loved him, and he thought about how he ran away when he was nineteen and he found a family with his sister and strangers he knew he could depend on. He thought about Nico, so sad when no one was looking, and so skinny, like he hadn’t eaten well in years, and he remembered how Nico looked the first time Jason told him he thought he was his friend. He thought of how Nico looked the first time Nico looked when Jason told him that he loved him. He thought about the first time Jason had told Nico he loved him and how Nico, as scared as he had been all those times, had given into the trust he’d built with Jason. 

“I know.” Jason said into the quiet. 

He walked over to the other side of the bed and knelt beside Nico as he lay on the bed.

“I’m terrified of getting this wrong. But you have to trust me. Remember what I said when you agreed to finally be with me?”

Nico nodded. “You said I had to trust that you’d love me enough for the both of us.”

Jason nodded. “I want you to want this as much as I do. But if you’re only saying no because you’re scared, then you need to trust that I am too. But we can do this.”

Nico nodded. 

“Okay. If you want me to trust you. I will.”

 

_**Wendy we can get away** _

_**I promise if you’re with me, say the word and we’ll find a way** _

_**I can be your lost boy, your last chance** _

_**Your "everything better" plan** _

_**Oh, somewhere in Neverland** _

 

They intended to adopt a baby. But instead they find Wendy. 

Wendy is five and had been left with Foster Care when her mother left her. 

She reminds Jason of himself and instead of interviewing the woman about babies Nico and Jason ask to see Wendy. 

She’s small, still innocent enough to not understand that her mother left her. She comes with a package deal of a eight year old girl named Cecilia who is deaf. 

But deaf or not Cecilia and Wendy are a package which Wendy makes very clear. Jason thinks of Thalia and how for more than ten years he’d been separated from her. He won’t do that to them if he can help it, or he’ll use Reyna’s experience as a lawyer. He knows he wouldn’t be fighting fair, but Wendy is perfect, and Cecilia is too and he can’t help but imagine making a home for them. 

Nico wants Cecilia to join them because when he looks at her with her olive skin and dark brown hair Nico sees Bianca and something about this little girl reminds him of her and he can’t let her go. She might not get adopted because she’s deaf, but Nico spent the better part of his late teenhood and early adulthood depressed and he knows that he can overcome her barriers just to be with her, just like Hazel overcame his.

Nico and Jason look at each other before they turned to Wendy. “Do either of you have a problem with the fact that we’re married?”

Wendy shakes her head. “No.”

She turns to Cecilia and signs something. Cecilia shakes her head and Nico lets out a sigh he doesn’t know he’s been holding. 

Jason leans forward and smiles softly at them. “How do you both feel about coming home with us?”

 

**_I want to be your lost boy_ **

**_Your last chance, a better reality_ **

 

Cecilia and Wendy come home with them the month before Christmas. 

They love the apartment Jason and Nico live in and while there were three rooms, enough for them to have their own rooms, they decided to have individual beds in the same room. They get to decorate it how they like and once they’ve settled in Jason and Nico invite Piper, Leo, Will, Reyna, Percy, Annabeth, Hazel, Frank, Thalia, Luke, Tyson, and Ella. Cecilia likes Ella and Tyson the most. Tyson and Ella sign with her and while Nico and Jason are trying hard to learn Tyson and Ella do it with easy and they even hear Cecilia laugh at a joke Tyson signed. 

There’s cake and streamers and they all give the girls gifts and Will and Reyna fawn over them appropriately while Leo teaches Cecilia Morse Code. In the end Cecilia and Wendy like Hazel and Frank and Thalia and Luke the most. Luke gives them boxes of prank material and Thalia gives them each an iPod filled with her personal favorites. 

When everyone is gone Cecilia, Wendy, Jason, and Nico all sit at the table and talk. Jason and Nico try to sign and Cecilia just laughs and even if her laugh is a little distorted Nico and Jason find it to be the most beautiful thing they can think of. 

They end up laughing until they’re crying and Nico looks around at them all, the warmth he imagined when he was younger flooding into the image before him like a star that’s burst with light. Nico remembers that idea he’d lost the day Bianca died and he can’t help but feel his heart beat stronger now that he has it back.

 

The next morning he is making breakfast when Jason and the girls come into the kitchen, Wendy hanging off Jason’s leg and Cecilia on his shoulders. 

Jason smiles and makes his way over to where Nico is standing. 

“Hey.” He says softly.

Nico looks at him and notices that his eyes are a bright shade of blue and he kisses him. Cecilia and Wendy make gagging noises and Cecilia signs something Nico notices immediately. 

_ Gross. _

Nico chuckles signs back. 

_Too bad._

Cecilia giggles and Jason lifts her up and before he puts her down he kisses her forehead. Cecilia gives them both a contented smile before she goes to the table. Wendy stands up.

“Where’s my kiss, daddy?” She says indignantly.

Jason rolls his eyes and lifts her up to give her a wet kiss on her cheek. She giggles and joins Cecilia at the table. 

Nico smiles at them as he takes their plates over and he notices that all the seats at the table are being taken up. He remembers when he was child and his father left an empty seat and empty space in his life. He remembers a few months early where the table was just Jason and himself and it felt empty even then. 

“Ready to eat?” Jason signs and says at the time. 

The girls nod enthusiastically and Nico smiles as he set their plates down. Plates full and just enough space for them all. Nico thinks about Maria and Bianca and Hazel and Frank and Will and Reyna and all their friends, and thinks about for how long he’s wanted a family. 

They dig in as Nico watches them enjoy the meal and he can’t imagine ever having thought that he would be like his father. 

 

Jason looks at Wendy and Cecilia and how Nico is looking at them with a look of love and Jason begins to eat, thinking that this is exactly where he needs to be, and exactly where he’ll stay. Home. 

 

**_Your "everything better" plan_ **

**_Oh, somewhere in Neverland_ **

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I do it right??? Is anyone crying?? Was I the only one???


	34. So Maybe We Finally See Each Other in Lights That Burn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this is the chapter named after the name of this fic finally.   
> So I have a few prompts to write but for a moment I really wanted to get into Piper and Jason's relationship. I was thinking about it and how it would work after BOO and how maybe things would change when Jason gets his memories and everything and I just really loved the idea of how this fic played out for me. It's kinda sad but I just imagined this is how it might happen. There's no Jasico here, but I really wanted to do a character study on Piper and Jason in this respect.
> 
> Or, in which Jason and Piper are holding on to things they want, but don't need. And the author loves to make her precious children suffer.

_**Written in these walls are the stories that I can't explain** _

_**I leave my heart open but it stays right here empty for days** _

 

Jason and Piper are in love. Or, well, they feel like they are. 

This quickly ends. Or, well, not so much quickly as time is made of a series of days and weeks and months and nothing can ever happen quickly in this case. So, this slowly ends. 

Jason promised Piper that he would never be stupid enough to break up with her, but after he’s building shrines in California and she’s on vacation with her dad and grandpa, he remembers that he never promised her he would stop being in love with her. It doesn’t happen suddenly one day. Jason lives a life in calculated measure and steps planned out, his entire life having previously been planned for him. Jason lives life in an articulate way, a measured passing and coming of time and dealing with it responsibly and accordingly. He doesn’t notice it at first. 

In July when he kisses Piper he has never felt so in love. She kisses him and somehow they end up fifteen feet in the air. Jason likes to think it’s because his feelings are taking them to the clouds, where he feels his heart is at the moment, so high it’s in the clouds and never wants to come down. He spends the summer after the war with her. They kiss and train and she beats him mercilessly and she makes him laugh and he makes her laugh and everything is tinged with yellow warmth. Nico stays and Jason loves him the way a friend should and so does Piper. Everything is great.

Until one day Jason’s memories come back. 

He’s sleeping in the cabin that feels stifling and he’s laying there and suddenly he remembers the legion. He remembers being raised by wolves and fighting in San Francisco and he remembers Reyna and he remembers how he led her on, not having any intention of loving her the way she so very obviously loved him. His breaths come quick and sharp and he suddenly knows what it’s like to suffocate. He maybe be the son of the Sky God but right then he’s sure he’s choking on air. He sits up and he looks at the walls of the room and everything they mean to him, how important this cabin and this camp have been to him. He remembers the things from his old life. 

Sure the Legion had been nice. But it was hard to feel at home in an army. 

Now the walls close in on him and he just can’t stop thinking about Reyna and all the other girls he’d dated and how he never intended to stay with any of them. 

He tries to catch his breath, all the while telling himself he would never do that to Piper. Everything they are, everything they’ve built, even if it’s not based on a truth, Jason will work to make their own truths, their own memories that mean something to them both. 

 

It doesn’t last very long after that. 

He’s gotten into a habit, late at night when no one, even Nico, knows he’s staying up late killing himself over this, he stays up and thinks about Piper and his life with her.

Piper is fantastic. She’s brilliant and resourceful and beautiful inside and out. She’s smart, and she’s funny, and she’s every Jason ever thought he’d want in someone he wants to stay with for the rest of his life. But Jason looks at the statue of his father and he thinks about how something in him is inherently incapable of dedicating himself to a person fully. He thinks about his father and all the affairs that are written in textbooks throughout the ages and all Jason can think about is What if I’m just like him? Jason thinks about it relentlessly, never having a break from imagining himself like his father. 

He looks at the marble statue of his father, the only presence, beside when they fought together, that Jason has ever had of his father. He thinks about Piper and how happy she makes him and he tries to close his eyes to get the look of Reyna, heartbroken after the war, out of his brain. But he closes his eyes and all he can see is her sad, wistful face, and how he looks so much like his father.

He loves Piper.

Or, at least he’s trying to. 

 

_**She told me in the morning she don't feel the same about us in her bones** _

_**Seems to me that when I die these words will be written on my stone** _

 

Piper notices that something is wrong with Jason. She’s not stupid and she sees how he looks at her sometimes. He looks at her and she sees that he’s hurting. She kisses him in July and he loves her. She kisses him in August and he loves her. She kisses him in September and he loves her. She kisses him in October and it’s the first time he doesn’t look at her after they’ve kissed. She visits him in New Rome as he builds the shrines, and she’s going back to school in Los Angeles. But she visits him and instead of kissing her when he sees her and his eyes looking bright just at the sight of her, he looks at her as though she’s not there. She kisses him and he kisses her back and he does not love her. She can’t tell. 

Aphrodite visits her in her dreams. 

They sit in a cafe in Paris and her mother talks about how she always wanted them to be together, wanted them to live happily together. But she goes on to explain that one cannot force love, and while Jason loves her, he won’t love her the way she needs. 

“I’m afraid it runs in his family.” She says sadly. 

Piper tells her that she can fix it, can fix whatever it is that’s broken Jason. Because they’ve fought for the world. They fought for their right to love each other and love each other in a world without things that tell them love can’t exist. They’ve fought for it, and now it’s time Piper fight for it again. 

Her mother tells her not to. 

She shows Piper small images of Jason, late at night. He looks at the ceiling of his cabin and his eyes are empty. They are so empty and they are so sad and maybe there weren’t as many casualties in this war as the last war, but Piper remembers that you don’t have to be dead to be a casualty of war. 

He flips on his sides and he looks at the statue in the middle of his room and he gets up and paces and when the light of sunrise hits him she can see the bags under his eyes and she can see him applying make-up she’s never noticed and she sees herself as he answers his door and his face goes from hopeless to bright. 

It should comfort her, but she is shown his eyes and they hold the same emptiness. Aphrodite explains that Jason needs to heal from whatever wounds this entire ordeal has caused him. But Piper knows better. She knows that something in him is torn, torn from being one way and forced to live another way. She looks at the moving images her mother shows her of Jason applying make-up, living in secret in a way he never asked for. 

She wakes up and she goes to breakfast and Jason smiles at her and kisses her and Piper remembers. 

She kisses him in November and she’s not sure he loves her. 

Maybe he can’t.

 

_**And I'll be gone, gone tonight** _

_**The ground beneath my feet is open wide** _

_**The way that I been holding on too tight** _

_**With nothing in between** _

 

Jason realizes why Nico is alone. 

Jason stops making shrines, telling everyone that he needs a break from everything. But instead he goes to his cabin and he lays there. He lays there for four days. 

No one comes after him and he’s thankful that Piper is in school so she’ll be busy and Jason won’t have to lie about how he’s feeling. He sits in his bed and everything turns gray around him. He thinks about the past Jason and the Jason of the future and he isn’t so sure where Present Jason fits into this. And maybe that’s because he doesn’t. Jason knows he’s always going to be alienated because of his father. He wonders if his father feels like this, separated, left alone because everyone is afraid of him. Or everyone crowding him because they all want his good favor. Jason wonders if maybe he’s like his father, not for the first time.

On the fifth morning he’s staring at the ceiling for the sixteenth hour in a row and suddenly Nico appears. 

Nico steps from the shadows and Jason looks over at him slowly. 

Jason is sure he isn’t depressed, or maybe he is. But something in him has snapped. He knows this. Because he looks at Piper and all he can remember is the faces of everyone he left behind, and all the people that have died because Jason failed somehow. Jason sits there and Nico walks over, maybe scared or cautious. But Jason knows that it might be scared more than anything. 

Nico tells him to get up, to eat, to do anything but sit there and feel sorry for himself. Jason gets up and goes to breakfast and Nico sits with him and then they go back to Nico’s cabin because Jason can’t spend another minute, hour, second, looking at the sculpture of his father. 

Nico is quiet for a moment, not sure what to say. But then he talks about how he’s scared he’ll end up like his father. And how he’s glad he’s gay so he won’t leave some unfortunate child behind that he’ll never know about. Nico tells him all the things that Jason has never expected him to. Jason finds that a lot of the things that Nico’s saying are things that Jason worries about. Nico keeps going and when he’s done he looks at Jason. 

“You won’t be like him. You’re too good.”

And Jason wishes that he’d be able to believe that. He wishes so badly that he can believe the honesty and truth in Nico’s words. 

But all he wishes for is a good night’s sleep and for Reyna and his father to stop torturing him behind his eyelids. 

It does help though, knowing that Nico is worried about the destruction he’ll one day bring and if he can fix it. He is glad that there’s someone who understands. And when he goes back to his cabin the statue doesn’t even bother him. 

 

_**The story of my life** _

_**I take her home** _

_**I drive all night** _

_**To keep her warm** _

_**And time is frozen** _

 

Jason visits Piper for her Winter break. He buys a truck in New Rome when he goes back and he drives it all the way down to LA. He spends a week with her there and then eventually they begin their drive back to Camp Jupiter. As they drive down the west coast he rolls down the windows and Piper lets her hair down. They take their time and drive along the cliffs and edges and the water that shimmers with Pacific blueness. Her hair is down and when they stop at a rest stop to veer over the edges of the cliffs he looks at her, ocean spray in her clothes and sun in her eyes and he wishes he could love her so much more than he already does. 

She looks perfect, tattered clothes, but confident and strong and Jason remembers her battling for her life and knows that her beauty has a bite, that her beauty did not come without the cost of her defense. She is strong and she is strong-willed and for that she is beautiful and Jason wishes so badly that he could stay with her, but he knows who he is, what he is, and he knows that it won’t last.

But she’s smiling at him, pointing at seagulls, and Jason wants to make sure that when it ends he has something to remember her by. He pulls out his phone and takes a photo of her, eyes bright, wind blown hair, and skin so dark but so beautiful that Jason wants to kiss her again. 

He loves her, he knows that. He just wishes he could love her more. 

She kisses him as they look at the waves that create foam at the base of the cliffs and Jason looks around. When he sees no cars and no people he wraps his arms around her and he carries them down and along the ocean surface. She’s laughing and smiling now. Jason can smell the briny spray of the ocean and the winds he’s harnessed, but Piper is laughing and she looks at him exactly like she did when he first met her, and he wants to keep this. He wants to keep this last thing between them, because when he has nothing left he wants to have this. 

He loves her, he always will. 

He takes another photo of her, mid-laugh, just to remind himself. 

 

_**The story of my life** _

_**I give her hope** _

_**I spend her love** _

_**Until she's broke inside** _

_**The story of my life** _

 

Jason never meant for it to happen this way. 

He never meant for anything to happen this way. 

It’s the summer after the war with Gaea and Jason is back at his old work. And his old ways. 

He’s working and working and staying up and looking at the ceiling and even with Piper there, something feels off. He applies the makeup and hopes no one knows that he’s been doing that so that no one knows he’s not even able to sleep. 

Piper pretends like she doesn’t see it. She knows that when he’s ready he’ll explain why he does, but right now he’s not ready and she knows that she either has to respect that or risk losing him. And she can respect him enough to not question it. 

It’s July again. 

She kisses him in July and she’s sure he doesn’t love her. 

She tells him this and they fight on the docks. For the first time in their relationship they fight. 

Jason won’t lash out, won’t yell or scream or use his powers, he’s too controlled. But he speaks in quiet, cold tones, and Piper wonders if she even knew every part of Jason like she thought she did.

She tells him that he’s distant and that she knows he doesn’t love her. And he argues that he does. He argues mostly for his own sanity. Because Leo’s run off with Calypso and Percy is in college and Reyna is still something that bothers him and Nico is gone for a while again and she’s the last thing he has left. If he loses her then he has nothing. He knows it’s selfish, he knows it sounds like something his father would do, but he loves her, loves her in ways he doesn’t know how to love anyone else. He is taking everything from her for himself and it repulses him. It makes him nauseous but he needs her, because Thalia is gone and all his friends are gone and he’ll be left alone again, only with his mistakes and a cold statue that reminds him of what he is. He was too young to recall it, but he remembers faint parts of being left alone in the Wolf House, and Jason is afraid if he ruins this then he’ll be left alone again. 

He stares at her, she’s crying, and he feels the worst he has in all his life. He apologizes, and they walk away from each other, but not before she hugs him and asks him for time to be away from him. She tells him that she needs to adjust to the news and she kisses him on the cheek and walks away. Jason lets her, because he knows she’s better off. He knows what he’s done and he knows what he’ll do if he goes after her and asks her to stay. 

He’s not stupid enough to break up with her. She breaks up with him.

 

Piper kisses Jason in August. He doesn’t love her the way she needs, but she will always love him. 

 

_**Written on these walls are the colors that I can't change** _

_**Leave my heart open but it stays right here in its cage** _

 

Jason is visited by his father in his sleep. 

He’s finally asleep for the first time in a long time and he sees his father on his throne. 

Zeus is as cold as Jason remembers him. He stands there and looks at his father and waits. 

He’s not sure what he’s waiting for, but he waits for something, anything. 

His father finally speaks, and it’s to say that he’s seen what Jason is doing to himself. Jason doesn’t want to hear his father concerned. It unsettles him, and makes him angry and indignant, and all the things he’s been feeling since the war ended. He’s still vulnerable because Piper broke up with him the month before and he doesn’t want to hear about how sorry his father is. 

He tells his father this exactly. Jason isn’t afraid of the scent of ozone or the crackling of lightning that permeates his father’s presence. He knows that he’s got nothing left to lose and maybe it’s made him a bit reckless, but Jason doesn’t care. Jason does it and he knows that he’s doing it so he can feel something. 

His father explains that Jason cannot fix the part of his personality that belongs to his father. His father explains that it’s the way they are. 

Jason forces himself awake in horror and later, when he calls Percy on an IM he asks if he thinks he’d be happy to be like his father. 

Percy laughs and says that while Poseidon is cool, he knows who he is and who he’s going to be. 

Jason hangs up and sits in his bed for a long time, until he sees the hints of orange that bleed into the horizon. He sits there and thinks about his father and about Piper and Reyna and how Jason can’t fight whatever it is inside of him that is telling him that he’s like his father. 

He visits Reyna the next day. He talks to her privately for hours. 

He asks her questions and she tells him the things he missed patiently. She talks about how they loved each other, and Jason tells her, gut wrenched, that the Roman him never loved her, never intended to. She looks at him sadly and some part of him that looks into her eyes seems to understand that she knew that long before he’d been taken. He explains what Jupiter told him and she shakes her head, telling him that he can be better.

He tells her he can’t. He explains that what he’s done to her is imprinted into his mind. Reyna sighs helplessly and while it makes him feel better when they’re done, and Reyna even gives him a tentative smile, he knows he’ll still have dreams about it. He leaves her that day and she's smiling with Nico and Frank in a meeting. Her shoulders are broad and her smile is kind and the air around her is one that demands respect. Just like Piper she is beautiful. Jason leaves and he wants to tell her that he would love her if he could. But he can't.

Because there’s something about himself that he can’t change, a part of him that Zeus has and has always had, and now Jason has that in himself. Jason goes home and he sits in his bed and thinks about his sister and his mother and how Zeus made her so many promises.

Jason curls his fists and he cries. 

He didn’t cry when he toppled a Titan’s throne. He didn’t cry when he was forced by the Wolves to fight. He didn’t cry when he thought his best friend died. But he cries now. He cries for what seems like hours and Jason isn’t sure why now, what brought it on, but he knows that once he’s started, he can’t stop. He whimpers and screams and yells in anguish, and weeps. No one comes around to his cabin, but Jason knows that the campers here him, and he can’t bring himself to care.

A few hours later he’s curled on his side, every bone in his body aching with pains he’s not sure are physical, and Nico appears with a cookie, a blanket, and a soft voice.

They lay side by side and Jason thinks about how he’s never had a better best friend, even if at the time all he can feel is a tightness in his chest. 

 

_**I know that in the morning now I see us in the light upon a hill** _

_**Although I am broken, my heart is untamed, still** _

 

Jason sees Piper in June when she comes back to camp. 

He’s better than he was the previous year and when he sees her she smiles at him and she looks happier. He’s glad that she looks better. They meet at the top of Half-Blood Hill and hug and something about the hug signals that he has her back. They won’t date, Jason knows they can never go back to that. But she kisses him in the cheek and he loves her the way she needs now, as a friend. 

Piper kisses him in June and he loves her. And that’s all that she’s ever needed. 

Jason can’t connect with her, hasn’t been able to connect with anyone romantically, but he stares at her and he knows that even if he can’t love her in exactly every way she needs he’ll love her for the rest of her life in the ways that count. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So??? What do you guys think???? :D   
> Also remember that submissions are always being taken so don't be shy and request whatever ou'd love to read!! :D
> 
> Song by: One Direction


	35. Honk Twice If You Want Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Author couldn't really find a way to make this work but likes the idea nonetheless and the Author has no idea how jobs like this work and would like for everyone to know that. 
> 
> This prompt comes from Aziciel and I would like to formally apologize, being that this isn't nearly as long as you must have wanted. Do I get brownie points for making them late to the same meeting???

_**Prompt:** 'this traffic is bad as hell and we both enter the same taxi and neither one wants to give it up because we're both late to an important meeting' _

* * *

 

 

Jason was running down the street at three in the afternoon. He had his suit on, his tie loose around his neck as he ran from the lobby of his apartment building and down the street, trying to catch a cab. He looked down at his watch and called for a cab. On the busy street even with all the cabs there, he finally flagged one down.

 

From across the street Nico di Angelo tried to flag down a cab so that he could get to the gallery meeting that he had to be at in less than half an hour. He tried to whistle and call and everyone had been hopping in into cabs right before he could get them. Across the street he saw a cab at the curb unoccupied and he waved at the cabbie who nodded. Nico ran fast across the road, narrowly dodging cars as he ducked into the cab. 

He turned to find a blond man sitting right to him. The man wasn’t glowering, as is New Yorker custom when someone tries to take your cab, but his lips were set in a thin line and he had a disappointed glint in his eyes that portrayed his frustration. 

Nico would have left because of the look alone, but he looked down at his watch and found that he had fifteen minutes to get to the Guggenheim gallery meeting. 

He turned to the cab driver. “The Guggenheim. I’ll pay you double if you get me there in less than ten minutes.”

The car pulled off the curb quickly and he turned to the blond man. “Sorry. I’m in a bit of a hurry.”

Jason wasn’t sure who this man was, but he’d taken Jason’s cab. And while Jason needed to get to the Guggenheim as well, coincidentally, it was the principle of the thing. 

“You hijacked my cab.” He said, lips still set in a thin line and his eyes conveying a fatherly disappointment. 

Nico frowned. “I didn’t mean to. Plus this is really important to me.”

Jason frowned and looked down as he began to tie his tie. “So was this meeting. You should have checked the cab before you hopped in.”

Nico sighed and sat back. “No point in fixing it now. I could just get out if you’d prefer.”

Jason shook his head. “No use, just like you said. It’s fine.”

They arrived to the Guggenheim, Nico tossing the cash as he rushed out of the cab and ran into the Guggenheim main gallery building.

Reyna turned to him. “Nico! Hurry up! You’re lucky the main curator was late so you still have time to get ready! Hurry up and get ready to explain to them why they need to take these pieces!”

Nico was given a much more presentable change of clothing and he quickly changed, reciting his speech in his head. 

 

Jason ran out of the cab once the dark haired man was out of sight and he took the service entrance of the Guggenheim and ran up the stairs up to the main gallery. He ran into Annabeth, the second executive curator. 

Annabeth sighed. “You know, being late is fine, but you’re half an hour late and we need to review this Nico di Angelo’s pieces.”

Jason was breathless and stood there for a moment before he let out a breath and stood tall. “I’m fine. I’m fine. Let’s do the review.”

Annabeth raised an eyebrow but she waved in front of her. “Lead the way.”

 

Nico fussed with his tie and stood still and nervous next to Reyna as he waited for the curators to review his artwork. He was standing, looking down at his tie when Reyna elbowed him. 

“They’re coming, Nico.”

He looked up and found that right next to Annabeth Chase the blond man from his cab ride stood next to her. Nico’s jaw nearly dropped and he attempted to show that the encounter hadn’t had any affect on him at all. Jason Grace approached him and looked at him in sock for a moment before Annabeth spoke. 

“Hello. I’m Annabeth Chase, we spoke in emails. This is my partner for this project, Jason Grace.”

Nico attempted a smile and held his hand out. “Nice to meet you.”

Jason shook his head and gave a blindingly bright smile, something in Nico stuttering and starting at double time. 

“Please to meet you, Nico di Angelo. Do you usually make a habit of taking your employer’s cabs?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget that submissions are always being accepted and you should feel free to submit them!   
> If you want to submit something anonymously my tumblr is cuzfuckyouimawriter.tumblr.com and you can send any headcanons, prompts, or AUs there! Remember, I love ideas and love people giving me the inspiration to write so feel free to contribute to this fic!  
> Have a cosmic day!


	36. In My Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jason Grace is my actual fucking dad and Nico loves him and his cute child.   
> Or, in which Reyna is the beautiful and amazing mom friend and Jason's child is my favorite child.
> 
> Also the author loves Jason as a dad and will never get fucking tired of writing him this way.  
> Prompt by SoVeryAverageMe!

_**Prompt:** One of them is a struggling single parent and the other is a rich businessmen with trust issues._

 

* * *

  
  


_**There are places I remember** _

_**All my life though some have changed** _

 

Jason met Piper when they were in high school. She was beautiful and bright and blindingly good and Jason loved her. They spent days in the shade, loving each other and confiding in each other in ways that they hadn’t with others. Jason saw her eyes that changed when the sunlight shined and her beautiful brown skin and he thought he could love her forever if she let him. She was kind and generous and she was everything he’d ever wanted when he was young. Their days were spent laughing and living and Jason wanted it to last forever. 

She was music in his ears and she was a painting he’d stare at forever. 

They were at graduation the day Piper told him she was pregnant. 

He smiled at her. She didn’t smile back. 

That day, after they both hung out with their friends, she sat with him in his bedroom and explained to him that she would have the baby, but she couldn’t keep it. 

“I have things I still want to do, Jason.” She explained. 

For Jason that dug deep and hurt. For so many days and so many nights he’d dreamt about building a life with her. Their life wouldn’t be ideal, but they would have as many kids as Piper wanted and they would run around and their days would be filled with sunny mornings and birthdays where there were smiles. They would love their children unconditionally. They would raise a family and Jason and Piper wouldn’t make the same mistakes their parents had made. They would get older and their children would move on and have dreams of their own and Jason thought Piper had meant it when she told him she wanted those things. He was hurt, but he looked at her and he understood. It was her choice to give that baby away, and he respected that. He asked her if he could keep it. 

She looked at him and they both knew it was over the moment she discovered she was pregnant. They wanted such vastly different things and they both knew it. He explained that, and she nodded, but it didn’t make it any easier to go through the motions. He put his hand over hers, and they smiled softly at each other. 

Jason met her in high school and they loved each other, but they would love each other when they were apart and while that may have hurt now, they both knew they would feel much better in the long run.

 

In the long run, once Jason explained to his father and stepmother that he got his now ex-girlfriend pregnant, they kicked him out. Jason, despite being stressed that he couldn’t find a job and was crashing with Percy and Annabeth, felt relieved that he wouldn’t be raising his child around the people he hated. 

The day he moved in Percy watched him carefully. 

“Do you need help, man?” Percy spoke carefully. It unsettled Jason because Percy never spoke carefully. 

Jason chuckled and shook his head. “Nah. But if you know where I can find a job then feel free to be a helpful hand.”

Percy perked up and smiled at him. “Actually, my dad has a restaurant. . .”

Jason looked at him. “Seriously?”

Percy nodded. “Yeah, you know, and it pays pretty good, so maybe you can save up for the kid.”

“Her.” Jason said reflexively. 

Percy frowned in confusion. “What?”

Annabeth walked into the room, books in her hands and rolled her eyes. “The baby, Percy. It’s a girl.”

Percy’s mouth formed an ‘o’ shape in realization. Then he grinned. “That’s great, man!”

Jason thought about his empty pockets and empty bank account and how in less than four months he’d be worrying about a baby by himself. He ran a hand through his hair. 

“Right.” He let out a shaky breath.

Percy put a hand on his shoulder and looked at him with a softness that he rarely used. 

“We’ll help you, Jason. It’ll be okay.”

Jason didn’t tell him how he couldn’t help him when the little girl asked about her mother, or asked about periods, and how when she learned that other kids had two parents and she only had one. Jason didn’t tell him how he was worried that he was worried that one day he’d be like his father, and his daughter would run away like Thalia had and she would never come back again. He didn’t tell him about how Jason was worried that he would struggle so badly that his daughter would grow up learning what the word no meant more than yes. Jason instead smiled gratefully at him and nodded wordlessly. 

 

_**Some forever not for better** _

_**Some have gone and some remain** _

 

Nico was ten when his mother died. 

She died of cancer and she left behind an emotionally distant husband, a young daughter, and an even younger son. 

Their father left them with a nanny in a tall New York City skyscraper, an apartment that any person would have killed for. Nico would have killed for just a few moments with his father. 

When Nico was fourteen he told his sister he was gay. She smiled at him and he knew everything would be okay. They went to school, they loved each other, and they lived in that New York City apartment with only each other for company. They had a moderately nice life, with the hurt of his father’s abandonment and his mother’s death hanging around the edges. 

When Bianca was eighteen and she graduated Nico could almost see it; them moving out into an apartment that was theirs, with friends they both loved, and away from that cold and sterile apartment that just sought to remind them that they were strangers in their own home. But Bianca smiled at him from where she held her diploma and and he saw a world of possibilities. 

 

Nico was eighteen when Bianca died in the Peace Corps. 

She’s gone to Africa to teach women in Jordan. But she’d gone into work one day and there had been a bomb right outside of the school and she’d been a casualty in a war that waged for ages against women. Nico didn’t have the heart to be angry with the Peace Corps. Bianca had met Will there, and he’d come home as soon as he was able and stayed with Nico the whole time. She’d believed she was doing good, helping women to learn, and she knew the risks. But when Nico saw the urn they’d sent her home in, he simply didn’t have anything in him to do anything but get swallowed by the crushing weight of their dreams crashing around them. She had promised that when she came home they would talk. They would talk for the first time in three years and she would tell him everything and Nico would tell her about the job he’d just received with the Met to make art and restore it. He’d been so excited, so young and already he could get a foot in the door of his career. 

But she came home in that urn and no matter how much he prayed she would never answer him. 

The funeral was small, with all her friends there, and only their father. Their father, who Nico hadn’t seen since he was sixteen. After the funeral when his father had traded harsh words, Nico had bit back.

“You don’t get to say those things!” He had yelled. 

His father sighed. “You were always one for dramatics.”

Nico glowered at him. “Dramatic? I haven’t seen you in two years and I’m being dramatic?”

He stomped off, to that apartment Bianca had bought them, and he wept. A few hours later Will knocked, but Nico didn’t answer. 

 

_**All these places have their moments** _

_**With lovers and friends I still can recall** _

_**Some are dead and some are living** _

_**In my life I've loved them all** _

 

Jason, Leo, Piper, and Annabeth sat in the waiting room of the hospital for what seemed like hours. 

In the last few months Jason had done well working with Percy and his father at their restaurant by the bay. He’d made good money on tips and saved up aggressively. He’d gotten a nice apartment with two rooms, and he’d spent his days preparing for the little girl he’d be raising. 

The months leading up to this day had been easy, but now that Piper had gone into labor, Jason was flooded with panic. 

“What if I mess this up?” He muttered, as they waited for the doctor. 

Percy shook his head. “Relax, man. You’ll do great.”

Annabeth nodded supportively. “It’ll be fine.”

Leo grinned. “Besides, you’ll have this awesome guy helping you out.”

Jason rolled his eyes and gave a little smile. “You’d let her into the garage toolbox.”

Leo faked a look of shock. “Excuse me? I would be a great uncle!”

They all chuckled. 

For a bit the knots in his stomach subsided and he felt a bit light. But he still had the same anxieties as he had when he first found out about the baby. 

He was worried that he’d not feel any love for the child, like his father had done after taking one look at him. Jason was worried he’d never be able to give that small little girl everything she wanted. 

The doctor walked in, scrubs a mess. “She’s ready to be seen.”

Everyone stood up at the same time, Jason taking the lead and walking alongside the doctor as she showed him to the nursery. The entire way there his legs felt as though they would give out under him at any moment. He felt his palms begin to sweat and then she led him to the doors of the nursery and made her way to another appointment. 

Jason stared up at the sign and hesitated. 

Leo put a hand on his shoulder. “You have to do it eventually, Jason.”

Jason swallowed and didn’t move. 

Annabeth smiled at him. “We’ll be right beside you.

He swallowed again and moved through the doors. 

A nurse smiled at him. “Hello, name?”

Jason wiped the sweat on his forehead. “Jason Grace. I was here with Piper McLean.”

The nurse nodded and broke out into a genuine smile as he looked at his clipboard. “Ah! Yes, a perfectly healthy baby girl! Right there!”

He pointed and for a moment Jason didn’t look, couldn’t force himself to look. Because once he looked, this was real, and he would never come back from this. 

He turned his head and looked over at the little girl swaddled in a pink blanket right at the edge of the room, right in front of the glass. 

He looked down and zeroed in on her. Her head already had tuffs of dark brown hair growing and the nurse left their side to go in and get her. She was silent, only making gurgling sounds and Jason watched her so closely it suddenly felt like she was the only thing he could see. 

The nurse handed her to him and for a moment he hesitated. He couldn’t carry something that important in his hands. He was so worried he’d break it. 

Annabeth guided his hands and helped him hold the baby and she stood in front of him. 

“You made a beautiful daughter, Jason.”

He looked down and saw that her eyes were bright and blue, like pools of water. He stared at her, not uttering a word. 

Leo looked over his shoulder. “Oh man, she might be even cuter than me!”

Jason snapped out of it and rolled his eyes. “Of course she is.”

Leo snorted. “I can’t believe this. She’s alive for, what, fifteen minutes, and you’re already replacing me as best-looking. I can’t believe this.”

Jason looked down at the little girl who had opened her eyes. 

Annabeth smiled. “Babies normally don’t do that this early. She must be eager to see her dad.”

Jason looked up at them all suddenly and his eyes watered. 

Percy looked at the baby. “She’s got your eyes.”

Jason nodded and looked at her again, not being able to look away for more than a few moments. 

“What’s this little beauty’s name?” Leo asked. 

Jason smiled at his daughter. “Her name is Charlotte.”

Percy gave him a wide smile. “Charlie Grace. Sounds great.”

Jason looked down at the little girl who was now the center of his world for what would conceivably be the rest of his life. She was so small and light, not any heavier than an average household item and he thought about how breakable she was. He thought of her growing up and about Reyna and Percy and Annabeth and Leo and how she’d grow up knowing she was loved. Jason wanted her to know that above all things in her life, she would always be loved. She might never know her mother, but if Jason had done his job right, that wouldn’t matter. 

Jason remember Piper and looked at Annabeth. “Can you take her?”

For a moment Annabeth stilled in shock and for the first time Jason watched Percy pick up the slack and take Charlie with ease. 

He left them with his daughter and went to talk to Piper. 

She was resting in bed, sweat like a skin on her, and she looked tired beyond belief. 

She smiled weakly at him. “Is she beautiful?”

Jason nodded. “More than we could have ever imagined. You should come see her when you’re feeling better.”

Piper shook her head and looked away. “That’s not a good idea.”

Jason sat beside her. “Piper, she’ll want to know who you are when she’s older. Don’t you want her to know you?”

Piper turned to look at him and her eyes watered. “I can’t, Jason. I can’t.”

Jason shook his head. “I’m not asking that you stay in her life, but wouldn’t you want to see her grow up.”

Piper sighed and her voice cracked when she spoke. “I have a life, Jason. I have things I want to do. College is coming next year and I want to get that done. I want to have a life, Jason. And as much as I wish I could love her, I don’t have space in my life for a baby.”

Jason clenched his fist. “You think I do?”

Piper shook her head. “I never asked you to take her. I just. . . You have to understand.”

And through his indignation he did. He knew that when he started school he’d have to worry about babysitters and staying up late and so many things others wouldn’t have to. He couldn’t blame Piper for not wanting those things. 

She looked out the window at the sun. “You think I want this? To be exactly like my mother even though I promised myself I never would be? I don’t want this, Jason.”

She turned to him. “If I could have, I would have raised her with you, but that time is passed and I need to get on with the life I want to live.”

Jason nodded and held her hand. “I know. I’m sorry. Maybe our timing wasn’t right.”

Piper patted his hand. “I know. But you and her, your timing will be perfect, Jason.”

Jason smiled at her sadly. “Maybe one day we can catch up. You can see Charlie.”

Piper smiled at him as she drifted off. “You named her Charlie.”

Jason left her alone to rest and went back to the nursery to find Leo was carrying Charlie.

“Please don’t throw my baby.” Jason said lightheartedly. 

Leo laughed. 

“Come on, man. I’m not that irresponsible. I have have the position of godfather uphold?” Leo tried. 

Jason chuckled and took Charlie out of Leo’s arms. “Maybe.”

The nurse came out of the nursery and smiled at him. “Hi! So, the mother just signed off and in about a week she should be okay for you take home.”

Jason turned back at to Percy, Annabeth, and Leo and how they smiled gave him the strength to nod and hand her back. 

“Yeah, home.”

 

Hazel was the nicest person that Nico had ever met before Bianca. 

She was kind and sweet and when she got a hold of him when he was nineteen he was wary. But as they met in a cafe and she explained how her father had left her mother and her for a life in the city he knew she was who she said she was. Nico was glad to have a sister, but careful this time around. He knew when he was sharing too much, and when he needed to distance herself. After a year of being alone, of being isolated, he’d grown cold. She warmed him, heart and soul. But he still thought about that urn on the mantle in his living room, and he tried not to grow too close. 

But it was hard, and he wanted so badly to love her earnestly and fully. But instead he loved her carefully and with a cautious reverence. 

When she came into his life, she came with a flurry of friends. Some he already knew, like Annabeth and Percy, but there were new people, like Jason Grace and Leo Valdez. 

 

It was his twentieth birthday the first time he met Jason Grace. 

Everyone had gotten there except for Jason, who was running twenty minutes late and when the buzzer for his apartment went off, Reyna let him in. 

Jason wore a cardigan, his glasses slightly askew, and a dark haired, blue eyed baby on his hip and a diaper bag on his other shoulder. The girl let out a content and gleeful sound when she saw Reyna. 

Reyna smiled at her. “Hello, cariña.”

The little girl held out her hands and Jason let out an exasperated breath as he handed her off. 

“Now she’s an angel. She was crying the whole way over.”

Percy shook his head. “It’s because she loves Reyna.”

Everyone greeted Jason and Reyna carried the baby girl over to Nico, Jason following after them. Jason watched the baby girl carefully, attentively. 

Reyna waved between Nico and Jason. “Nico, this is Charlie and Jason.”

Jason smiled tiredly at him. “Hi. Sorry we were late. Charlie didn’t want to be changed.”

Charlie squealed and Nico gave her a small smile. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Reyna wandered off with Charlie. Jason turned quickly to her. “Make sure to tell me if she starts fidgeting. That means I need to change her.”

Reyna waved him off. “Relax, Grace,” she turned to Charlie, “your papa worries too much.”

“Papa!” Charlie said happily.

Reyna carted her off to be fawned over by their friends and Jason watched them along with Nico. 

“Is she yours?” Nico asked carefully.

Jason nodded. “Yep. It’s going to be two years in September.”

Nico nodded. “She’s very beautiful.”

Jason shook his head and looked at Charlie fondly as she beamed at all the attention she was getting. 

“I think she gets that from her mother.”

“Is it just the two of you?” Nico asked, carefully once more as to not hit a nerve.

Jason nodded. “Yeah. Just the two of us.”

“Why is that?” Nico asked before he could stop himself. 

Jason shrugged. “She and I wanted different things. But it worked out. Charlie and I have a heck of a time together.”

Jason remembered the first time she had walked and how her first steps had been toward him and he thought about how when she fell she looked up at him as if she was worried he’d yell and when he just smiled at her in wonder she had giggled. He thought about the first time she’d said papa and it had been when they were watching a movie together on one of Jason’s rare days off. He thought about how he’d had none of that if he’d taken the easy way out and decided not to take her. 

Nico nodded. “That’s nice.”

Before Jason could say anything Charlie’s sharp cry rang and Jason’s eyes widened before he turned to Nico. 

“Sorry, duty calls.” He said quickly, before he hurried over to her. 

 

When the party was over and Will, Reyna, and Hazel were cleaning up Will brought up the interaction. 

“So, how do you like Jason?”

Nico tried to hide the redness that he felt rise to his ears. 

“He was fine. Very nice.”

Hazel laughed lightly. “Oh, that’s very telling. You hardly like anyone.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Telling of what?”

“That you like him very much.” Reyna put in.

Nico began to seal the cake in containers. “You have no proof of that.”

“Your denial says everything.” Will grinned maniacally.

Nico rolled his eyes. “He has a kid.”

Hazel smiled fondly at the memory of Charlie. “She’s a sweetie.”

“Besides,” Reyna interjected, “you wouldn’t date one just because they have a baby?”

Nico sighed. “He must have a lot on his plate. There’s no need for a relationship to add to that. Besides, we don’t even know if he’s gay or bisexual.”

Reyna chuckled. “Trust me, he’s bisexual. You weren’t there for last year’s Christmas party.”

Nico sighed. “Is that why you introduced me? To set me up?”

Will shrugged. “I think it’s good. You need to get out there, if nothing else, maybe make a new friend if it ends but goes well.”

Nico just continued throwing away the solo cups. 

 

_**But of all these friends and lovers** _

_**There is no one compares with you** _

 

Jason woke up to find Charlie crying for the fifth time that night. 

He padded over to her room and picked her up. She continued to scream but he rocked her nonetheless.

“Please, Charlotte, papa needs sleep.” He hushed her. 

She continued to cry but he rocked her and began to hum until eventually the humming lulled her. She was wide awake but she was quiet now. Jason carried her with him to the living room where he held her close to his chest as he sat on the couch and watched television. Eventually he felt himself fall asleep, arms wrapped tight around her. 

He woke up to find Charlie was asleep against his chest and the buzzer to his apartment went off. He carefully carried her and went to answer the door, thankful that it was a Saturday. 

Reyna walked into his apartment with ease, Nico following her along carefully, wary.

Jason smiled sleepily at them. “Hey, morning guys.”

Reyna looked at him. “It’s noon, why are you still in pajamas?”

Jason sighed. “Charlie wouldn’t stop crying all night. We stayed up watching Master Chef until she passed out.”

Charlie began to come to and Reyna took her and carried her to the kitchen. Nico looked at Jason.

“Sounds rough.”

Jason smiled at him. “Yeah. But she’s a good kid. Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Nico nodded. “You’re good with her. I can tell you love her.”

Jason nodded. “Thanks.”

They both walked into the kitchen to find Charlie already in her booster seat and Reyna rummaging through the cabinets. 

“Jason, have you eaten at all in the last three days?”

Jason thought about his double shift at the restaurant and then the feedings he’d had to give Charlie and suddenly he remembered that he hadn’t eaten in three days. He gave her a repentant look. 

“I think. . .”

She rolled her eyes. “That’s something you and Nico have in common, never eating right. Sit down, both of you. We’re having lunch like normal adults.”

Jason and Nico turned to each other and sat down like she asked. 

Charlie giggled and watched Reyna while Jason talked with Nico. 

Nico smirked as Jason fixed and cleaned his glasses. “Do you normally watch Master Chef with a baby girl who doesn’t understand it.”

Jason smiled at him and chuckled. “Hey, she might turn into the next Gordon Ramsay or something. Who knows?”

They both turned to Charlie who giggled happily and eat her soft peaches and threw one on the floor.

Nico chuckled. “Somehow I don’t think she’s going to have a career with that.”

Jason smiled earnestly at him and his blue eyes sparkled just like Charlie’s. 

“That’s okay. I’d love her either way.”

Nico smiled earnestly at him this time. For some reason he believed what Jason said. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So as an update I would like everyone to know I am totally fucking ready for prompts and I am actually thirsting for some.   
> Also, I may be getting a job soon, and if I do I will try and let updates be normal and timely, but if not, then you know why! :D  
> Don't forget, submit your ideas and have a cosmic day!


	37. So I'm Going To Love You Like I'm Going To Lose You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay so aziciel is a beautiful muse and has given me a prompt that got away from me like super fucking hella.  
> Or, in which Jason and Nico are both the only sons of major kingpins of New York City and arranged to be married for convenience. Or how Jason and Nico learn to love each other.
> 
> The prompt involved a term for Japanese gangs call Yazuka and I took the liberty of applying that liberally to however the hell it worked out for this fic.

_**Prompt:** 'our yakuza families decided to marry us off with each other and now it's our wedding night' _

 

* * *

 

If anything shady ever happened, Jason never asked.

It was a rule that his father taught him early on. You took the money and presents presented to you and you didn’t ask. In his life Jason knew that there were things you were allowed to ask and things you weren’t. For the most part, Jason didn’t ask questions at all. He sat quietly, obediently, followed his father when his father asked, and no more. He went to school, where he learned that families weren’t like his. In school he learned that people had parents and their parents worked as firemen, or teachers, or accountants, but not as businessmen when a foot in the world of the mafia, that they weren’t kingpins who controlled most of New York City.

Being as it was, it was New York City and it was easy for his father to camouflage their illicit business transactions.

Jason grew up knowing that if you defied the honor given to you by your family, you were killed. Jason knew that when you were asked to take part in things that involved the mafias of the city, you complied whether you wanted to or not.

The only person ever capable of leaving the ties that bound their family had been Thalia.

She’d more so been kicked out. She joined Reyna in New York City in a small apartment in Manhattan and she loved it there. His father had kicked her out when he found out she’d gone and gotten married to a rival gangmember’s daughter. Thalia didn’t care. She loved Reyna and when Jason visited them on the weekends and rare weekdays, they seemed happy. Reyna’s family had complied with her wishes to keep her out of everything and they lived peacefully, a limbo of neither Thalia’s father’s men coming after them because they were ordered not to, and Reyna’s family respecting her enough to listen when she asked to be left out of things. They got married and even though their apartment was small they were happy and Jason wished he’d have the possibility of something like that.

There was Piper, but Piper was innocent, kind, sweet, and when he got serious with her and his father asked if he’d be willing to marry her, he’d broken it off. Piper was good, and getting involved in things like his family would only result in heartbreak, or someone would wind up dead.

Jason learned early on that he could love many people, a trait he did not get from his mother or father, but he could not fall in love with people. It was a risk Jason never wanted anyone to understand, the constant looking over your shoulder in paranoia, the need to be trained in boxing and some type of martial arts just to survive if a rival gang ever thought they’d get to the man at the center of power by taking his only son. Jason knew that for the sake of every one of his friends he’d never do that to them.

But despite all that Jason always thought that he’d marry for love. Love was a novelty idea, one Thalia would constantly remind him was not in short supply.

“You just have to want it.” She’d tell him, softly on Saturday mornings as Reyna kissed her softly and their apartment flooded with the golden light that seemed to constantly surround them.

“You just have to reach for it, Jason. You have to want it, and then take it.” She’d tell him softly as they walked by themselves in Central Park, talking about their life, about his life and hers and what they meant apart from each other.

She was lucky, Jason thought. She was lucky because of all the times and all the places in the world she’s found love right in front of her. Jason grew up being raised around secrets, and in the back of cars where deals were made, but he couldn’t help imagine if he’d married for love.

He always thought maybe it could go either way, a man or a woman, but he imagined himself like Thalia, far away from whatever it was that his father had gotten himself wrapped in. He’d be happy with his spouse and they’d have a child and Jason could see it all, the coming and going of birthdays and holidays and every single day wrapped in love and safety.

Being that as it was, Jason didn’t marry for love.

 

It begins like this.

Percy is the best friend Jason could ever ask for.

“Percy you’re the best friend a guy could ask for.” Jason told him drunkenly, as they stumbled back to Percy’s apartment.

Percy laughed, carrying him by his side, stone cold sober and laughing as Jason stumbled and hiccuped.

“Whatever you say, Jason.” Percy laughed.

Jason shook his head. “No,” _hic_ , “I mean it! Best. Guy. Ever. Good job, Annabeth ‘s lucky.”

Percy laughed again. “Why don’t you tell her that?”

Jason nodded. “I will!”

Percy stumbled with Jason up to his apartment but eventually he lay Jason on his couch and Jason smiled lazily up at him. “You’re so great.”

Percy just shook his head and walked into his room down the hall.

“Good night, Jason!” Percy called.

But Jason was already fast asleep.

In the morning as Jason nursed a painful headache with coffee he brewed, already knowing where everything was in Percy’s apartment, Percy came rushing in.

“Jason, your phone. You have like seven missed calls from Thalia.”

The phone rang and despite the banging it caused in his head Jason picked up the phone.

“Thalia? What’s wrong?” He asked.

Thalia breathed a sigh of relief. “Jason, where are you?”

Jason glanced at Percy worriedly. “With Percy, why?”

“Whatever you do, don’t go home.” She warned.

He clutched the phone tighter. “What? Why? Thalia what’s going on?”

“I’ll explain later, Jason. Just, Stay. There. Don’t move! Give the phone to Percy. Now.”

Jason shook his head. “Thal-”

“I’ll explain when Reyna and I get there, but give the phone to Percy. Please, Jason.” She pleaded.

He handed the phone to Percy who watched him carefully. “Thalia wants to talk to you.”

Percy took the phone and Jason watched him intently.

“Yeah, this is Percy.”

A pause.

“What?!” Percy yelled.

He seemed to notice that Jason was still there and composed himself quickly.

“Thalia, he won’t agree to it. Can’t he find someone else?”

A pause.

“Yeah. Yeah. Fine, see you in fifteen.”

Percy hung up the phone and Jason waited for him to tell Jason something, anything, but Percy just looked at him like he was a lamb going to slaughter.

“What?” Jason asked.

Percy shook his head. “It’s about your dad. About his business.”

Jason’s heart stuttered for a moment before it started up again. “What about him?”

“He’s looking for you.”

Jason shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

Percy sighed and reached for Jason’s cup of coffee, which had gone ignored.

“Thalia will explain when she gets here.”

They waited for ten minutes until Thalia and Reyna came bursting into Percy’s apartment and they both jumped.

“Jesus,” Percy exclaimed, “a little knocking wouldn’t kill you, Thalia.”

Thalia rolled her eyes. Then she turned to Jason and looked back at Percy.

“How much did you tell him?”

Percy shrugged. “Nothing. This seemed like something you should.”

Jason looked quickly between them and Reyna, who watched him with a look of sympathy in her eyes that Jason didn’t understand.

Thalia sat down with Reyna at the kitchen table along with Jason and Percy and Thalia gave him a sad look.

“You know dad’s looking for you right?” She asked.

He nodded.

Thalia looked at Reyna for a moment, hesitant to begin. Reyna nodded firmly.

“Go on, you have to warn him.” She said softly.

Thalia took a deep breath and looked at Jason again.

“Dad is looking for you because he wants you to get married.”

Jason froze. Everything stilled, except Thalia, who kept talking, her voice worried.

“I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t listen. And his men are looking for you right now as we speak. We had to be careful coming here.”

“What?” Jason asked.

Thalia sighed. “I’m sorry, Jason. I tried everything I could and he just went along with it anyway.”

Jason felt the ground open up beneath him.

Percy put a hand on his shoulder. “We can fight this, Jason. We can fight this and you can get away from them once and for all.”

Jason looked at Thalia and Reyna, so happy, and even with Thalia’s worried eyes she held Reyna’s hand subconsciously. He thought about how his father had kicked her out because somehow he knew that if he didn’t, she’d end up exactly like Jason, trapped and alone, living a life he never asked for, but forced to comply because that was how these things work. He thought about how one day Thalia would have children and they would be so happy, never knowing what it meant to keep secrets that weighed so heavy on their shoulders it felt like their weight was crushing and squeezing everything out of them. Jason imagined Thalia and Reyna with children who loved them, who could be open, who could take gifts and not worry about how they’d come to happen to come to their possession.

“To who?” He said finally.

Everyone turned to him in shock.

Percy shook his head. “You’re not seriously thinking about this, are you?”

“Jason, no.” Reyna said, softly, sadly.

Thalia shook her head. “Jason, no. You can’t.”

Jason thought about the day his father had told her to leave and never come back, and how after words, his father sat in his big old office, Jason by his side, and he cried silently.

He turned to Jason and his eyes were sad. “You are all that is left, son.”

Jason was sixteen then, and it had been the first time his father had called him son. Jason remembered how he realized with stunning clarity that his father’s coldness and distance from her had been his way of protecting her. When he kicked her out that night Jason remembered how he turned to Jason and had asked him to do something.

“Show me their life. Through photos or videos, anything. Make sure they are happy.” He’d said softly.

They both sat in that cold office, alone, but together, until Juno had appeared and Jason watched his father walk away with her, their plans for a date having taken him away. Later on that night his father was in his study and Jason went to him.

“I had to let her go.” He’d said.

Jason nodded. “I know.”

His father put his head in his hands. “I never wanted this for any of you. But you have to stay, Jason.”

Jason shook his head. “I don’t want to take any of this on, dad.”

His father shook his head. “You’ll never have to. I want it to die with me. But I need you to stay with me. You’re not safe, son.”

And Jason remembered that now as he looked at Thalia.

He turned to Percy and Reyna. “Can you give us a moment?”

They both nodded and went to the living room.

Once they were out of hearing range Thalia looked at him.

“You can’t be serious, Jason. Are you crazy?! This is insane! You’re agreeing to an arranged marriage because dad wants to make connections in the damn mafia.”

Jason shook his head. “You don’t understand, Thalia. I have to do this.”

Thalia crossed her arms and her blue eyes sparked with anger. “You have to do this? You have to enable dad in whatever shit he’s gotten into this time? What aren’t you telling me?”

Jason thought about his father alone in that cold office in a skyscraper, making money but having no one but a wife he didn’t love and children from another woman.

He sighed, looking at her sadly. “He’s protecting me. I’m not safe.”

Her anger and indignation seemed to drain then, and even in her leather jacket and choker, and her military boots and dark eyeliner, she reminded him of that fourteen year old girl in photos where she stood next to eight year old Jason and he could see how much she loved him.

“Oh.” She said softly.

It seemed she just begun to realize who and what Jason was; the only son of a kingpin.

He nodded. “Yeah.”

Thalia looked at him sadly and her voice cracked as she put a hand over him in the tabletop.

“Jason, I’m so sorry.”

He thought about her children, cute little things that would have beautiful brown skin like Reyna and lightning blue eyes like Thalia, and he smiled sadly at her.

“It’ll be okay. I’m doing this for us.”

Thalia shook her head. “You shouldn’t have to.”

Jason looked at Percy and Reyna in the living room and how they looked back at him sadly. He thought about how Percy was his best friend, and the only person in his life who knew about his father, about the truth. He thought about Reyna, who Jason knew wanted a family someday. She couldn’t have one if Thalia was caught up in their father’s life, or she ended up dead.

“I don’t have a choice.”

 

Jason met his father that afternoon.

He walked into the office to find his father was alone.

“Jason, I assume you heard the news?”

Jason nodded, back straight, face neutral, and his stomach clenched with anxiety. “I know what I have to do.”

His father shook his head. “Mr. di Angelo is very useful, and his family has promised that you will have guards on you at all time. You’ll be safe marrying into his family.”

Jason nodded. “Yes, father.”

His father sighed. “I know you had plans for a different life, Jason. I am truly sorry.”

Jason thought about Reyna and Thalia and everything they’d have, how maybe one day he’d be able to find something like that, or maybe just find that his spouse wasn’t totally repulsive.

He nodded. “When do I get to meet them?”

His father stood. “Now, if you would like. I had a dinner scheduled with them.”

Jason nodded. “Let me change, I’ll meet you down in the car.”

His father nodded and Jason went for the suit that was packed away in the desk Jason used whenever he came into the office to work.

He changed quickly and with his father he got into the car that awaited to drive them.

Jason sat still and silent until his father spoke. “You’ll like him, I think, the son.”

Jason’s heart raced without his permission. “Him?”

His father nodded. “Mr. di Angelo’s only son. I find that you could be fond of him given time.”

Jason looked out the window forlornly, thinking of Piper, of love that could have flourished if he’d lived some other way. He thought about how he wanted slow burning love and something that could last years, would be something even his children looked up to, a marriage that set an example for love and trust and a connection that would mean something.

“Right. Fond. . .” He said softly.

They arrived to the restaurant and before they went in his father stopped him.

He looked at Jason. “Please try, Jason. I only want what’s best for you.”

Jason had heard that a lot over the years. “Okay, I’ll try.”

They walked in and were led to a table in the furthest, darkest corner, but it glowed with comfortable, warm, low light.

A man with dark hair and dark eyes sat beside a younger man. The younger man wore a crisp suit, his hair done in an undercut, but groomed well. He looked up at Jason and even in the low light Jason could see his dark eyes stare right into Jason’s. He gave Jason a smoldering look before he looked away. Jason simply watched him until his father had him sit down.

Hayden di Angelo looked at Jason.

“This is your son, I presume.”

Jason’s father nodded. “Yes. This is my son, Jason Grace.”

Hayden stared down Jason. Jason fidgeted under the cold stare of the man.

He turned back to Jason’s father.

“He’ll do just fine.”

Jason gulped and stayed silent. The dinner passed with their fathers making arrangements for the wedding and whenever Jason looked over at him the young man shot him a glare and Jason looked away quickly.

At the end of the night they all exchanged good-byes and when Jason was being led away by his father, his father nodded.

“You did good. The wedding will be in two months.”

Jason nodded wordlessly, wondering if someday when he had children they would know about cold office buildings and covert conversations and bulletproof limousines.

Then he shook his head. He would never have kids if he could help it. He wouldn’t bring a child into this life, not this one.

 

Nico got into the car silently.

His father sighed. “You know, he’s hardly the worst you could have. I remember you chose him, out of all the candidates.”

Nico turned to him, sitting across from him. “Just because I chose the least terrible option, doesn’t mean it was willingly.”

His father sighed again, this time sadly. “You know, it was to protect the boy. His father cares deeply for him and never wanted to see him hurt. We can offer that.”

Nico glared at him. “I don’t give a damn about Jason Grace. Couldn’t you have protected that man without having me agree to an arranged marriage.”

His father looked out the window at the New York City streets that rushed by.

“We thought perhaps this would create a stronger alliance, let others know that we cannot be trifled with. Plus, after the attempt on Bianca last year we have to ensure that you can be protected, and with Jove’s men you can be.”

Nico looked at his father. He thought about when he was sixteen and Bianca had told him that he would one day find someone he loved and he’d be happy and he’d believed her. She left later that year and Nico was left to carry the weight of the secrets of their family.

“Okay.” He said, and looked out the window.

His father looked at him. “I am sorry that this has hindered the future you saw for yourself. I know that you imagined things differently, and I am sorry I am failing to let you enact that prospect.”

Nico looked back at him. “It doesn’t exactly change anything, does it?”

His father looked like he wanted to say something, but his phone buzzed with a text message and Nico glowered down at his phone.

“You might want to answer that. Wouldn’t want New York City to not be connected with one of it’s most important kingpins.”

The car stopped and Nico got out before his father could say anything more.

 

The next morning he got a call from Bianca.

“I just heard the news.” She said sadly, as soon as he picked up.

Nico sighed. “Yep.”

“Nico, I am so sorry.” She said softly.

Nico wanted to be mad at her the most. He wanted to yell into the receiver about how it was his responsibility to uphold so many traditions and loyalties and relationships because she’d left and not taken him with. He wanted to yell about how it wasn’t fair that at the age of twenty-six she was traveling the world while at the ripe age of twenty-one he was being forced to marry for convenience rather than love, like he’d always planned. He wanted to yell about how this wasn’t the life he had planned for himself.

But things rarely ended up as people planned and Nico steeled his nerves and shrugged to no one in particular in his empty room.

“Not much to be done about it. You’ll be there, won’t you?”

Bianca sighed. “Nico, maybe you shouldn’t go through with this.”

He gripped the phone tight.

“I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” He said angrily.

There was a pause, and Nico knew he’d hit a nerve. He felt bad about it, never wanting to lash out at her for wanting her own life. But some days, like today, Nico just couldn’t help being angry about it all, about how she’d traveled the world and done everything she’d had in mind for life. She’d done it all and Nico had stayed behind to pick up the slack because there was no one else. Nico had wanted to go to college, wanted to be a writer, or an artist, but instead he worked along with his father, to be the next up and coming kingpin of New York City. No one had asked Nico if he wanted an arranged marriage, and certainly no one had asked if he even wanted to live life like this. But this was what he was being given.

“I’m sorry. I forgot.” She said softly.

 _Forgot what?_ Nico thought. _Forgot that I was left behind as collateral damage to you wanting to go find your big adventure? Or did you forget that this was what I was trained for since teenhood?_

He was so angry, and upset, and everything felt too close, too loud or bright or focused, and everything felt surreal. He tried to bring himself back, tried to think rationally. He remembered that it wasn’t Bianca’s fault. She’d simply done what any person in her situation would have done. He didn’t find her selfish, he knew that if it had been different, he would have done the same.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “No, no, I’m sorry. It’s just been really stressful. I shouldn’t be putting that on you.”

“It’s okay, Nico.”

There was silence in which he didn’t respond and Bianca continued. “What’s he like? Jason Grace, right?”

Nico sighed. “I have no idea. I didn’t talk to him.”

“Maybe it won’t be that bad.” Bianca tried.

Nico rolled his eyes. “Ringing endorsement, really, Bianca.”

Bianca chuckled into the receiver. “I’m sorry. Maybe just try to see the bright side. Maybe you can grow to love him.”

Nico thought about how he’d always wanted to love people on his own, but when it was this forced, Nico couldn’t be sure that he would love Jason Grace at all.

“Yeah,” he tried for her sake, “maybe one day.”

  


“I just can’t believe your dad forced you into an arranged marriage for the good of the company!” Leo exclaimed.

Jason rolled his eyes. “We know, Leo. You’ve said it enough times.”

Percy shrugged from where he sat next to Annabeth on Jason’s loveseat. “To be fair it is a bit crazy.”

Jason sighed. “I know.”

Annabeth looked at him and put a hand on his shoulder. “You’ll be okay, Jason. If not you can divorce him any time you like.”

Jason nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, that could work.”

On his other side Piper smiled supportively at him. “Everything will be okay. Maybe once you get to know him you’ll like him.”

Jason thought of that brooding, dark haired man he’d met the week before and shook his head.

“Nico di Angelo doesn’t seem to be the kind of person you get to know.”

Percy shrugged. “Well you’re marrying him in less than a month, so you might want to find out how that could stop being the case.”

 

The wedding itself is held in a small church Jove explains was the church Nico’s mother and father got married in. Jason was changing into his wedding tux when Thalia and Reyna appeared and closed the door behind them.  

“Jason, it’s not too late to say no to this entire thing.” Thalia said said.

Jason thought about her future children again. He shook his head.

“No. I am going through with this.”

Reyna put a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll be with you every step of the way, Jason. Remember that.”

Even if he didn’t love Nico di Angelo Jason felt his knees begin to shake from nervousness.

“Let’s do this.”

 

The wedding itself is something Jason doesn’t really remember. He remembered a vicar and everyone that had gathered, but the wedding itself he forgot. He can’t stand to remember the way Nico stares at him from the other end of the aisle, like he’s been imprisoned and shackled to something so repulsive he can’t stand it.

After the wedding the wedding reception is held at Hayden di Angelo’s large New York apartment where they eat good food, and Jason learns that Nico has a sister, and eventually the night ends and Nico and Jason are given keys to an apartment that is half the distance between both of their apartments. Hayden and Jove dropped them off there once everyone’s left and Nico and Jason walked slowly up to the apartment.

In the elevator Jason turned to Nico, meaning to say something, but the words wouldn’t come, and when the elevator doors opened Nico simply walked out.

Jason followed and they made their way into their apartment.

It was cozy, which surprised Jason, but he enjoyed it nonetheless. Nico turned to Jason.

“Anything you were expecting about tonight-”

Jason shook head. “I wasn’t expecting anything.”

Nico turned and looked to find there were three bedrooms in the apartment. He turned back to Jason.

“I take one bedroom, please leave me alone. You can choose one of the other rooms.”

Nico took his bags and began to carry them to his room but before he closed the door Jason looked at his back desperately.

“You know, I didn’t want this either. I never wanted this.”

Nico stopped, still for a moment before he tilted his head to look at Jason. “Don’t wait up for me in the morning.”

And he slammed his door.

Jason simply stood there in the middle of their empty living room.

He took his bags inside and as he did so he thought about how it was his wedding night, what was supposed to be the happiest night of his life, and he was alone in his bedroom, unpacking his clothes, and his husband worlds away even though the only thing that separated them was the air in the hall between their rooms.

Jason looked down at his silver ring, and tried very hard not to let tears spill over in his eyes.

 

Jason woke up two days later and in his apartment, one that felt strange and foreign while being so familiar, he walked to the bathroom. Just as he was reaching for the doorknob Nico opened the door, steam coming from inside the bathroom. He was shirtless beside the towel he wore and the towel hanging off his shoulder. 

Jason’s eyes widened. “Sorry. I didn’t know you were-”

Nico brushed past him. “It’s fine.”

Jason watched him walk to his room and he just walked into the bathroom. When he emerged later he walked to the kitchen to find Nico already dressed and drinking coffee.

Jason shuffled awkwardly for a moment before he turned to Nico. 

“So, do you want breakfast? I could make something?” He asked tentatively. 

Nico shook his head and grabbed his bag from the floor by the kitchen table. 

“No, I have to head to work.” He said. 

He was out of the apartment within a minute and Jason just watched where he had been standing. 

“Right, work.”

Out on the street Nico got into the tinted Sedan with Will. 

Will smiled at him. “How was your morning?”

Nico rolled his eyes. “You know how I feel about them.”

Will shook his head. “No, I mean with Jason.”

Nico sighed. “It was what it was.”

Will rolled his eyes. “That means you ignored him, doesn’t it?”

Nico huffed and crossed his arms. “It’s none of your business. You’re my secretary, you know, not my therapist.”

Will chuckled. “We’re friends and you know it. Besides, I was at your wedding. It is completely my business. Not that I was even able to get a glimpse of the groom. You guys high-tailed it out of there so fast I was worried one of you was being chased.”

Nico thought of the wedding where he’d felt his knees turn to jelly in nervousness, and for a moment he thought that he could pretend that Jason could love him someday. But he looked over at his father standing next to Jason’s father and nothing could fix to remind him more than the way Nico’s father gave him a meaningful stare. 

“It wasn’t exactly your traditional wedding.”

Will chuckled humorlessly. “Don’t I know it.”

They were silent for a moment before Will sighed.

“You know, I know you’re busy with the kingpin business and all, but maybe you could try harder with him. I met Percy, who’s Jason’s friend, and he says Jason’s great. Really.”

Nico thought about the passing in the hallways they did as though they were ghosts. 

“I’m sure he is.” He said quietly, not looking at Will. 

Will gave him a sad look. “I mean, make a good situation out of a bad one.”

Nico looked out the window at the New York city streets that seemed to blur together. He thought of how he’d never get to marry the man he’d loved, how he’d have to live in separate rooms, living different lives, and being married to someone who couldn’t love him like he’d always wanted.

 

That night Nico arrived home at nine to find Jason in the dining room. He was eating by himself, by a plate was set in the seat across from him. 

Nico froze. “Oh.”

Jason looked up and stood abruptly. “Sorry. I-I left you a plate out. In case you came home hungry.”

Nico looked away from him. “Sorry. I’m tired.”

Jason nodded. “Of course. Of course. I understand.”

Nico shifted uncomfortably, feeling cornered by the front door until Jason rubbed his neck.

“Would you? I-I mean, would you like dinner?”

Nico looked at him for a moment before he pointed to the hall. “I think I’ll just go to bed.”

Jason nodded, feeling his nervousness seep through his actions. “Right. Right. Right, you must be tired.”

Nico nodded and walked down the hall without another word. He got ready for bed and sighed as he lay in bed, his stomach growling.

Jason sat back down at the table and ate quietly. He tried not to let the uneasy quiet upset him. And he certainly tried not to get upset at the fact that the table seemed to be missing people, like children, and a husband he loved.

 

Jason plopped down on Percy’s couch a few weeks later, his arms crossed and blue eyes stormy.

“It’s like he doesn’t even care! I tried to make dinner the other day, and he just went to his room, and didn’t even eat. He never eats, and when we do talk it’s because he’s complaining about something I’ve done.” He ranted.

Percy and Annabeth looked at him and nodded sympathetically.

Annabeth looked at him. “Maybe give him time, Jason. This is pretty big. Maybe he’s having a hard time with it.”

Jason’s anger deflated then but he let out a frustrated sigh.

“Like he’s the only one? I am trying to make this good. I am trying so hard, and he isn’t. I mean, I’m not asking him to love me, but it wouldn’t hurt if he just tried.”

After a while he left their apartment and when he arrived back to his own apartment he found Nico and a blond man sitting on the couch, laughing. As soon as Jason walked in Nico stilled. He looked at Jason with a neutral face.

Jason stopped. “Oh. . . Sorry. I’m- I- Uh, sorry.”

And he rushed to his bedroom. He shut the door and leaned against it, letting out a nervous breath.

 

Will looked at the door that had just shut and turned back to Nico who had let the formality drain from him as soon at Jason was out of the room.

Will grinned. “You didn’t mention that he was immensely hot.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “It’s not about that, Will.”

Will shrugged. “Maybe. But it certainly doesn’t hurt that your husband looks like a J. Crew model.”

Nico closed his eyes and clenched his fists, thinking of the heavy weight of the silver ring. “Don’t call him that.”

“What? A J. Crew model?”

Nico shook his head. “No, my husband.”

Will sighed and looked at him sadly. “I’m sorry. But maybe you should get to know him. He seems nice.”

And that was the problem. He was. Jason cooked Nico dinner every night, left a plate out for him because he knew Nico wouldn’t join him, and he left Nico a fresh pot of coffee brewing every morning since he’d moved in with him. Jason kept things orderly and neat and every time Nico had tried to say thank you his instincts took over and he’d criticized something, to which Jason’s face would fall and Nico would retreat back to his room.

“Yeah.”

Will looked back at the door to Jason’s room. “Maybe you can invite him to watch movies with us.”

Nico shook his head. “Absolutely not.”

Will sighed. “You’ll have to talk to him eventually, Nico. You’re married to him.”

Nico sighed. “Whatever happened to sympathetic Will who took my side and just let me do what I wanted?”

Will laughed. “He left because he knows you need tough love.”

They both chuckled and went back to the movie that was playing before Jason had walked in.

 

A little while later Jason stepped out of his room carefully, making his way to the kitchen to make dinner.

Jason didn’t see anyone, so he made his way into the kitchen with ease, and began to pull out pots and pans.

“Hi.” Someone said behind him.

He yelped and turned to find the blond man from earlier sitting in one of the the kitchen table dining chairs.

Jason let out a breath of surprise and then calmed himself down. “Hi. Who are you?”

The blond man smiled brightly at him and Jason felt safe around him. “I’m Will. Nico’s best friend.”

Jason nodded. “I think I remember you from the wedding. Where’s Nico?”

Will waved a hand nonchalantly. “He went to go get some things from the store and pick up Hazel.”

Jason’s brow furrowed. “Hazel?”

“His other sister. She just flew in from Canada.”

Jason nodded and went back to looking for things to find in the well stocked pantry and fridge.

“You know,” Will started, “Nico hasn’t really told me a lot about you.”

Jason shrugged. “We don’t really talk.”

“So I’ve noticed.” Will said, in a tone that implied much more than he was letting on.

Jason began to chop vegetables as Will continued.

“You should talk to him.”

Jason stilled for a moment before he went back to chopping vegetables to distract himself.

“What would I even begin to say? Nico doesn’t like me.”

Will shrugged. “Give him time. He’s one of those silent, brooding types. He’ll be okay.”

Jason looked over at Will who just stared back at him kindly. “You’re his best friend?”

Will grinned. “The one and only.”

Jason chuckled. “You don’t seem like the type of guy who would be friends with someone like him.”

Will shrugged, but kept the smile on his face. “Long time we’ve been best friends. I knew him before the whole brooding and silent thing.”

Jason nodded. “Sounds rough.”

Will shook his head. “Loving Nico is easy once you get the hang of it.”

Jason shook his head his head.

“Maybe you can learn to get the hang of it too.” Will said cautiously.

Jason chuckled bitterly.

“Don’t have to. We’re already married.” And it was very obvious that Nico was not interested in any type of relationship with Jason.

Will shrugged. “It wouldn’t hurt to try.”

Before Jason could say anything Nico opened the door and walked in with a young woman following closely behind him. Her wild cinnamon curls were tied back with a lace headband and she wore a purple hoodie and jeans. Nico froze, hands full with bags, when he saw Will and Jason.

Jason looked over at him and walked forward.

“Here, I can help.” He said.

Nico took several steps back. “It’s fine. I got it.”

The girl with smooth brown skin walked in front of Nico and smiled at Jason. “Feel free. He’s struggling but he’ll never let anyone know.”

Jason took three of the six bags Nico was carrying, some of which were Hazel’s luggage.

Nico looked down. “Thanks.” And he hurried to the guest room without another word.

Jason looked back at the young woman and she smiled warmly. “You must be Jason. Hi, I’m Hazel.”

Jason smiled at her. “Hi. I’d shake your hand but they’re full.”

She nodded and made her way over to the kitchen while Jason went to the guest room to drop off her bags. He shut the door behind him and set her things down. Nico was standing beside the bed, looking at him.

“You don’t have to stick around.”

Jason huffed for a moment before he breathed in deeply and sighed. “I kind of do. We’re married.”

Nico shook his head. “Hazel won’t mind if you’re not around. She knows everything.”

Jason shrugged. “If you’d prefer it that way.”

Jason thought about how he tried not to let that hurt him as much as it did.

Will peaked his head in and smiled at them. “Hi, lovebirds,” Nico glowered at him, “just wanted to know if Jason was going to be sticking around to teach me to how to make dinner tonight.”

Jason looked back at Nico and tried to convey his question of permission. Nico nearly flinched at the way Jason looked at him as though Nico dictated what Jason did.

Nico nodded and Jason turned to smile brightly at Will.

“I’d like that.”

 

Dinner was. . . surprisingly nice.

Nico watched Will and Jason laugh as they cooked in the kitchen and Hazel sat with him on the couch in their living room. It felt stiff with disuse but the color was warm and with Hazel there it felt like that.

Hazel glanced over at Jason.

“How is it? Is he nice?”

Nico shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. We hardly talk.”

Hazel sighed. “Nico, you really should try more.”

Nico scoffed. “How do you know it’s my fault?!”

Hazel gave him a scolding look.

He relented. “Okay fine. It is my fault. But I have my reasons.”

Hazel looked at Will laughing in amusement as Jason began to toss food into the pan. “You could love someone like him, Nico. You could if you tried.”

Nico shook his head. “We’re not discussing this. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Hazel stood up and sighed. “Fine, suit yourself. But if you ever need help, know that I’m here for you.”

She walked over to Jason and Will in the kitchen. “Have room for one more?”

Jason and Will smiled at her and Will grinned wider. “Jason was just teaching me some fancy techniques. Did you know he used to go to culinary school?”

Jason blushed in modest but Hazel grinned at him. “Really?”

Jason shrugged. “Yeah, just for a couple years.”

Will grinned. “Show her the flippy thing.”

Jason chuckled and flipped the food in the pan and Nico looked over to them as they laughed and had a good time.

Jason’s head was thrown back in laughter and Hazel was grinning fondly at Will and Jason while Will ate a piece of the food when Jason was too busy laughing. Nico saw the way his head was thrown back in mirth and the creases around his eyes became more prominent, laugh lines his skin learned from joy and enjoyment. When Jason stopped laughing and looked over at Nico he gave him a tentative smile.

Nico thought about what everyone had told him.

_Try, please try._

_You could love him, given time._

_Try to make it work._

Nico gave him a small smile back and walked over.

 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, you mean to tell me the guy tried to beat him up and he challenged him to a pokemon battle?” Jason said in disbelief.

Will guffawed and Hazel giggled as Nico just sat looking embarrassed.

“He did! Nico had the decks ready and everything!” Will laughed loudly.

Jason laughed loudly. “I can’t believe you did that!”

Nico chuckled and shook his head. “I was fourteen!”

Will laughed, gasping breaths in between. “And the best part was that he won!”

Hazel laughed and shook her head. “It was a slaughter.”

Nico shrugged, just chuckled again. “I was kind of obsessed.”

Will laughed quieter now and turned to Jason conspiratorially. “It’s true. It was kind of sad. I think he still has the decks.”

Jason laughed and dug into his forgotten dessert, a brownie with now slowly melting ice cream. Everyone ate, trading stories until everything was done and Hazel and Will left. Jason washed up everything and Nico sat in the living room.

Once he was done Jason made his way to go to his room, his interactions with Nico presumably over for the day.

“Hey.” Nico called softly.

Jason turned to him. “Yeah?”

Nico looked at the large flat screen television. “There’s nothing on, but maybe you could stick around.”

Jason didn’t respond, too shocked that Nico offered to be around him at all when they were alone, and it must have been too long a pause because Nico wrung his hands and recovered.

“Of course you don’t have to. I’m sure you’re-”

“No,” Jason said quickly, then cleared his throat, “I mean, I’m not busy. I’d like that.”

Jason sat at one end, awkwardly leaning away from Nico as he sat on the other end. They turned to the television to find that some drama playing and they watched it intently. Halfway through it Nico turned to Jason.

“Thanks.”

Jason was so engrossed he turned to Nico. “Sorry, what? Thanks for what?”

Nico sighed and turned his body toward Jason. “For being really nice about everything. I offered for us to protect you for no charge or favor, but my father thinks I need protection too.”

Jason nodded, smiling sadly. “It’s okay. I understand.”

And for the first time Nico looked at Jason Grace and saw him. Saw those sad eyes that told him he hadn’t asked for this just as much as Nico had. But Jason had tried to be the ideal husband and Nico had been closed off and harsh.

Nico sighed. “I just. . . This is not how I wanted this to happen.”

Jason gave him a commiserating look. “Let me guess, you imagined marrying for love, maybe have a few kids, no kingpin business to worry about?”

Nico nodded.

Jason let out a long-suffering sigh. “Me too.”

Jason leaned back and he looked slightly sad, but nonetheless hopeful and cheerful and Nico admired him. Jason laughed fully, enjoyed the people around him, and tried to make the best out of a horrible situation. Nico remembered Hazel’s words from earlier that night.

_You could love him if you tried._

“If it helps,” Nico said slowly, trying to push the words out, “I’m glad it was you. You’re a good person, Jason Grace.”

Jason turned to him and gave him one of those blinding smiles Nico had never expected to like. “You too, Nico. You too.”

They went to bed not long after that. Jason lay in bed that night and thought about Nico’s kind eyes when they complimented him, and he remembered his husband as they ate dinner with their friends, shoulders shaking as he held in his laughter. Jason fell asleep thinking about how deep and brown Nico’s eyes were, and how maybe even if Nico could never love him he’d make a damn good best friend.

 

The next morning Jason woke up before Nico and set to work on making breakfast. He made it simple, omelettes with toast. He was busy whisking eggs and setting the coffee to brew when he heard Nico come into the kitchen. 

He looked at the omelette already set beside his coffee, done just the way he liked it.

Nico looked down at the plate as he sat. “What’s this?”

Jason gave him a nervous smile. “I figured, it being the first morning your sister’s back in New York and maybe we could have a nice breakfast. Will told me you liked omelettes.”

Nico chuckled. “Will is a busybody.”

Jason chuckled. “Yes. But I, uh, I hope you like it.”

Nico looked down at the omelette made with spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, and cheese. It smelled amazing and when Nico took a bite and tried to bite back his groan of satisfaction.

Jason turned to him. “Do you like it?”

Nico nodded, swallowing his mouthful. “Yes. The omelette tastes great. You went to culinary school right?”

Jason shook his head, hiding his sheepish and pleased smile. “Just a few years. It was nothing.”

Nico shrugged. “You must have been good at it.”

Jason and Nico stared at each other for a moment, shy smiles being exchanged. Nico thought of Jason’s bright blue eyes and his apron and how he looked like the ideal husband. Jason stared at Nico and watched him stare back, clad in nothing but simple pajamas. It was a stark contrast from what he usually wore, those cold and clean-cut business suits. It was intimate, this moment, just staring at one another, and the sunlight streamed through the windows in the kitchen. Jason remembered those sunlight filtered days he’d seen his sister and her wife experience, and tried not to think too hard about this moment. 

“It smells great in here!” Will said. 

For a moment neither of them processed his presence until they both looked away from each other and Jason turned back to the cooking he’d been doing. 

Nico cleared his throat. “Yes. Jason is a very good cook.”

Jason smiled toward the pan as Will settled into a chair. 

When Jason went out that afternoon Will pounced on Nico the moment he was gone. He flopped down on Nico’s couch and looked at Nico, sitting in a chair, reading.

“Okay, so what was the deal with breakfast?”

Nico didn’t look up from his book. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Hazel walked into the room, yawning. “Jet lag stinks. What were you guys talking about?”

Will grinned at her. “Just about how Nico has a huge crush on his husband.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “I’ve barely been married to him a month, Will.”

Hazel settled next to Will. “I don’t know, maybe you do have chemistry. He seems like your type.”

Will nodded enthusiastically, but Nico shook his head. “It’s nothing, Will. You reading too much into things.”

Will chuckled. “Is that why you’re wearing his glasses right now?”

 

When Hazel went to visit Percy and Annabeth for a week and Will finally left their apartment Jason had been worried that maybe they would resort to being ghosts to each other, never talking, just pretending they were roommates. However, it didn’t happen.

Jason was making dinner one night a few days after Hazel and Will had both left. He had music playing softly and he was swaying as he cooked. 

“Hey.” He heard someone say from behind him. 

He turned to find Nico, files and papers in hand. “Hey. I-uh, what’s up?”

Nico’s eyes shifted. “I was wondering if I could work on things in here. The couch is hurting my back.”

Jason smiled at him. “Sure. Do you want me to turn off the music?”

Nico shook his head. “No, no, it’s fine. You’re fine.”

Jason nodded and went back to his cooking. At some points he’d catch Nico humming songs along with him and he just smiled. 

It was nice, Nico thought, having company and sitting with someone else. He relished in the easy company Jason brought, never asking him to say things, and letting him do things at his own pace. It was nice. When dinner was done Nico got up and went over to the cabinets. 

He looked at Jason. “I’ll set the table.”

Jason shook his head. “Thanks.”

They ate with pleasant talk in between. Jason asked about his work, his real work, and Nico told him, and when the conversation ran out on one topic Jason easily asked him more questions. Nico found himself full and having talked for two hours straight when he realized his plate was empty.

He looked down in shock. “Oh god, I spent this entire time talking.”

Jason shook his head. “No, no, I liked it. I enjoyed having dinner with you. It was nice.”

It became easier after that, for several weeks they fell into a routine, Jason making dinner, and Nico sitting with him while he worked. After the first week Jason felt comfortable enough to talk to him while he cooked. After the second week Nico had abandoned the paperwork all together for tasting Jason’s experiments at dinner. They would sometimes watch a movie after dinner, settling far away from each other, but the company was nice, and when Jason laughed at all the same parts Nico had he’d felt something warm in him bubble up to the surface.

 

“And don’t even mention chocolate to Nico, he is so picky. But he tastes the things I make and he’s so helpful when he gives suggestions.” Jason ranted happily to Reyna, Thalia, Annabeth, and Percy.

Annabeth gave him an amused look. “What happened to him being insufferable?”

Reyna nodded. “Yes, two months ago you couldn’t stand him.”

Jason shrugged. “That was two months ago, we were just starting out. Nico’s not so bad. He’s good.”

Thalia raised an eyebrow. “And you haven’t even made a move?”

Jason furrowed his eyebrows. “Why would I do that?”

Thalia shook her head. “No reason.”

She looked at Percy and Reyna with a knowing look Jason didn’t understand.

After he left them in favor of hanging out with Nico at home he arrived to find that the first thing to greet him wasn’t his husband, but Buford the dog and Jason immediately knew from the smokey smell coming from the kitchen who was here.

“Leo!” He yelled.

Leo appeared, right behind a disgruntled and visibly upset Nico.

Jason pet Buford and turned to Nico. “I am so sorry. Leo has no sense of responsibility.”

Nico huffed. “I’m beginning to understand that.”

Jason chuckled and put his hand on Nico’s shoulder. “You okay?”

Nico visibly drained of anger as soon as Jason put his hand on Jason’s shoulder and he looked sadly at the kitchen. It was the only place they seemed to connect, finding that in the yellow comforting lights of the kitchen it was easier for Nico to believe they could be together.

“Leo almost burned down the kitchen.”

Leo shrugged. “Hey, that’s exactly why we used the fire extinguisher. Safety first and all that.”

Jason shook his head and dusted the tangible smoke and pieces of ash off Nico’s shoulders. “Go put on a movie. I’ll handle Leo.”

Nico nodded and went to the living room and Jason pulled Leo into the kitchen.

“Leo,” he whispered, “what the hell?”

Leo grinned impishly at him. “Hey, had to meet the hubby, what with all your raving reviews. And Buford and I were in the neighborhood.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “I didn’t introduce you because Nico needs a bit of warning when he meets people.”

Leo nodded.

“As I can see, but he warmed up to you just fine, which can I just say,” Leo made whipping noises, “you are ridiculously whipped, my friend.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Leo, shut up.”

Leo chuckled and nodded. “Sure, but not until you promise I can stay. Piper is coming over.”

Jason sighed. “Fine, fine. But stay away from the microwave.”

“You nuke a pineapple one time!”

Jason walked into the living room and he pointed to Leo. “Nico, that’s Leo. He’s my best friend, resident arsonist.”

Leo grinned and waved at Nico. “Sup?”

Nico nodded and waved back tentatively. “He won’t set our apartment on fire, will he?”

Jason contemplated this and sat beside Nico. “There’s like a seventy-thirty chance.”

“Of which one?” Nico asked carefully.

Jason just chuckled and played the movie. Leo sat in the loveseat adjacent to them and they settled in to watch the movie. Half an hour later Piper came strolling into the apartment. Nico looked over with eyes wide, suddenly defensive and poised to strike, unused to people getting past the security he'd put in place. Nico stood up quickly and Jason put a hand on his chest.

“Hey,” he said softly, “it’s fine. It’s just Piper. Remember I told you about her.”

Nico’s defense fell and he nodded. “Yeah. Yes, I remember.”

Piper smiled at Nico. “Glad I’m being talked about. Hopefully I have a better reputation than Leo.”

“Do you set fires to feel joy?” Nico asked.

Piper shook her head.

“Congratulations, you’re number one.” Nico said.

Leo protested from the loveseat. “Hey!”

Jason turned back to look at him. “Sorry, Nico’s spoken.”

Leo mimed a whipping motion and Jason just rolled his eyes and turned back to Piper.

She smiled at them. “It’s nice to see you guys worked out.”

Jason and Nico furrowed their eyebrows until Jason looked down to find his arm was wind around Nico’s waist and Nico was leaning into Jason. They quickly stood apart.

“Oh. . . uh. . .” Nico stammered.

Jason shook his head. “I- we’re just friends.”

Piper chuckled and walked past them. “Sure, whatever you say.”

Leo laughed and made space for her to sit beside him.

Jason turned to look at Nico who would not meet his eyes, but his ears were bright red.

 

Jason was walking home from work when he saw Nico running toward him. He gave Nico a curious look. 

“Hey, you’re usually at work. What’s wrong?”

Nico stood for a moment, catching his breath, until he finally spoke. “I tried to get out early. So we wouldn’t have to have dinner so late.”

Jason smiled at him. “That’s nice, let’s go.”

They walked for a few blocks when Nico finally spoke. “How was work?”

Jason gave him an amused look before he looked forward and shrugged. “It was nice. Work is work. How did you get out of the office so early?”

Nico chuckled. “Will volunteered, actually. He told me he’d handle the paperwork.”

Jason smiled at him. “I’m glad. Do you want to go to the store before we go home?”

Nico’s heart raced at the way Jason had said home, as though it had finally meant something to him. 

“Yeah. Sure. Sounds good.”

When they got home, grocery bags in hand, Jason assigned him to chopping vegetables in the kitchen. The radio was playing classical music, Nico’s choice since Jason had let him control the music. Jason hummed happily with the music and when he was stirring he turned to Nico. 

“This is nice. It’s a shame I can’t dance to it whatsoever. I have two left feet.” He chuckled. 

Nico looked at him for a moment before he handed over all the chopped vegetables for the soup they were making.

“I-I could teach you.” He mumbled.

Jason turned to him once he covered the pot. “You know how to dance?” 

Nico shrugged, trying to pass off the offer he now regretted. 

Jason smiled at him. “Come on, teach me. We can do it while we wait for dinner to be ready.”

And that was how Jason was taught the steps to the waltz in the middle of the kitchen. When Jason finally got the steps right and they decided to dance a woman’s voice began to sing into the speakers.

“ _Wise men say. . . Only fools rush in. But I can’t help. . . falling in love with you._ ”

Their eyes met as the song played and their feet moved without either of them noticing them. All Nico could feel was Jason’s arm around his waist and Jason could think of nothing else but the way Nico’s lashes brushed his cheeks. 

“ _Shall I stay? Would it be a sin? If I can’t help. . . falling in love with you._ ”

They turned, moving around the room as effortlessly as though Jason had been dancing his whole life. Jason looked down for a moment in nervousness and Nico continued to watch him. His husband, that concept not sinking in until now, while they danced in their kitchen and the warm lights gave Nico the type of courage to believe something like this was possible. Jason’s golden hair was a halo around him as they danced and maybe Nico could love him, had already started to love him.

“ _Like a river flows, surely to the sea. Darling, so it goes. Some things are meant to be._ ”

Jason looked up to find Nico watching him intently. He nearly tripped over his own feet at that moment, with Nico’s dark eyes watching him. He’d gotten so used to seeing them casted away from him, except in their special moments as they made dinner and finally decided that perhaps being married to each other wouldn’t be so bad. He loved the way Nico’s hair brushed his eyes and his neck and everything about him seemed to exude a type of sadness he could never understand, but wanted to.

“ _Take me hand. Take my whole life too. Oh, for I can’t help. . . falling in love with you._ ”

They turned around together a few more times in the kitchen and when the song came to a close they stood there, no longer moving, but the world still spinning. Jason’s arm was still wrapped around Nico and Nico still looked at Jason. After a moment the scent of the soup wafted up Nico’s nose and he was the first one to step away. 

He cleared his throat. “Right, so dinner.”

Jason looked at him as though he were in a daze. “Right, dinner.”

That night they ate dinner early, sat together on the couch, not far apart, no longer willing to keep their spaces divided. They turned on Drunk History and as the hosts and guests slurred Nico chuckled. Jason looked down at him beside him to notice Nico was doing that thing he’d done when he’d been at dinner with Will and Hazel. He was trying to hide his laughter. 

Jason looked back at the television in contentment and neither of them payed much attention to the fact that they fell asleep that way.

 

A few weeks later Thalia and Reyna invited them out to dinner with Frank and Hazel and Annabeth and Percy along with Piper and Leo, a rare occasion that they had to partake in. 

Nico was pulling on his sweater as they stood by the front door to their apartment.

Jason was wrapping himself in his scarf when Nico huffed. “Why do we have to go to dinner with them?”

Jason chuckled as he wrapped Nico in his scarf. “Because they wanted to see us. Plus Percy and Annabeth haven’t seen you since last week and you know how they get about being in our personal lives.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “More like just Percy.”

Jason laughed and opened the door for him. “Yeah.”

They walked down to the black Sedan that waited for them. When they got in Jason noticed that Will wasn’t there.

He turned to Nico. “Where’s Will?”

Nico waved a hand nonchalantly. “He had something with Lou Ellen and Cecil.”

Jason nodded and they drove in silence. When they got to the restaurant Jason stood as the entrance, waiting as Nico talked to a group of men in discreet clothing who all stood by the entrance of the restaurant. Jason ignored the way he saw their guns glint at their sides.

Nico walked over and they walked in. 

When they got to their table everyone had already been seated and they all smiled up at Jason and Nico.

“You guys are late.” Leo quipped.

Jason rolled his eyes as he took out a chair for Nico and let me be seated first. “We were actually late, despite what you might think.”

Piper and Leo exchanged knowing glances and Leo held up his hands. “Hey. I wasn’t thinking anything.”

Jason settled into the seat next to Nico and his other side was Percy. 

Percy elbowed him and whispered, “But you wanted to be late for different reasons, right?”

Jason blushed and Thalia, from across the table, groaned. “Percy, if you’re telling Jason embarrassing things I have to get in on it.”

Percy was poised to speak but Jason just put a hand over his mouth. “Nope. Nothing. Percy didn’t say anything.”

Annabeth side from on the other side of Percy. “Children. You’re all children.”

Frank and Reyna gave her a commiserating look. 

They ordered shortly after that and as everyone ate they chatted happily. Nico learned that Reyna and Thalia had been trying for adoption. He learned that Percy and Annabeth would be going to Boston in the Spring to visit her cousin and Piper and Leo had recently gotten into a heated week long competition in Mario Kart 8.

Nico chuckled when he heard that. “I could play that.”

Piper smiled at Nico with a mischievous glint in her eye. “You think you can beat me?”

Nico shrugged. “It can’t be that hard.”

Leo shook his head. “Man, you just signed your death warrant. Piper is savage on the racetrack.”

Annabeth shook her head. “Piper leaves no survivors.”

Piper laughed at that, but Nico refused to be shaken. “We’ll see.”

Piper looked at him from across the table and she smirked. She turned to Jason. “Your husband’s got guts. I like that.”

Jason turned to Nico and smiled. “Me too.”

Nico gave him a shy smile until they heard gagging coming from all around the table. 

Percy, Leo, Thalia, and Piper were all making retching noises. Annabeth and Reyna were rolling their eyes and Frank and Hazel were smiling at them. 

Thalia shook her head. “You’re both sickeningly sweet. I can’t stand it.”

Percy turned to her. “You and Reyna were no better. Trust me.”

Leo raised his hand and he pointed to Hazel and Frank. “I believe that Frank and Hazel are the only couple who hasn’t repulsively made googoo eyes in public while out with friends.”

Hazel and Frank turned to each other and smiled in satisfaction and Leo groaned. 

“No! Not you too!”

Leo gripped Piper by her arm and he groaned dramatically. “Piper. It is only us single people left to resist these sickening couples.”

Piper detached herself from Leo’s grip. “Sure, Leo.”

Dinner went easily, with quips and banter. And Nico got the chance to talk to Hazel when dessert came around and when Jason and Nico, stomach full and chests hurting because of the laughter they’d shared with their friends, went out of the restaurant they felt the cool air blast them. 

Nico and Jason weren’t drunk, but they felt lightness in their stomachs and a clarity in their heads they hadn’t had since they’d gotten married. 

When they walked down the block a man walked up to Nico. 

“Sir, the car is waiting for you.”

Nico waved him away. “Not now. Tell them to follow us home if they must, we’ll be walking.”

The man nodded and was out of sight. Jason turned to him after they walked a few blocks. 

“I had a fun time.” He took Nico’s arm and Nico didn’t pull away so he took it as a victory.

Nico gave him a small smile. “I did too. I really enjoyed that. More than I thought I would.”

They walked silently until they reached their apartment and when they walked into the apartment they took off their coats in silence. As Jason walked to his room Nico stopped him.

“Hey, Jason?” He called after him.

Jason turned in his doorway. “Yeah?”

Nico shuffled nervously but he spoke despite his nervousness. “Would you-I mean. . . would you like to sleep with me?”

Jason’s eyes widened but Nico stammered. “I-I mean. . . I mean, just us, sleeping. That’s all.”

Jason smiled at him. “Sure. Just let me change into my pajamas.”

Jason changed and then he went to Nico’s room. The room was simple, gray walls and a bed with wrought iron pillars and a soft down bed. Nico stood on the left side, getting ready for bed, and Jason went to the other side. He got into bed carefully and Nico got in right beside him.

They lay in bed, the lights off, facing each other. Jason may not have been drunk, but he felt a nearly uncontrollable urge to surge forward and kiss Nico in the darkness. There was something private about the dark, something unknown and dangerous that Jason wanted to discover. A part of him believed that Nico was a part of that, of that vast unknown darkness that always seemed to cover him, but that he could never fully reach.

“Hey, Nico?” He whispered, feeling his heart beat fast at the question he felt himself about to ask.

Nico looked at Jason, beautiful pale skin and bright blue eyes. “Yes, Jason?”

Jason shifted until he was no longer facing Nico, but looking up at the ceiling.

“Do you think maybe you would have loved me in some other life? Maybe, if we hadn’t been forced to marry?”

Nico thought about the time they’d been together, nearly four months now, and how in just that short time he’d fallen in love with Jason. He fell in love with Jason’s favorite movies and books and he loved to watch him cook and hum in the kitchen, now a nearly daily routine. He thought about those moments where he would sometimes catch himself staring at Jason as though he was the sun itself. And he thought about what Hazel had said. _You love him if you tried_. And how that was true. Something in Nico loved Jason in ways he had never understood.

He continued to stare at Jason’s profile, his slender neck and his close cut blond hair nearly platinum, and his blue eyes where the cold moon reflected in them.

“I don’t doubt it, Jason.” _I already do_ , Nico didn’t say.

Jason turned to him. 

“I would have too, you know. I would have loved you in another lifetime.” _I already do_ , Jason didn’t say.

 

Two weeks later they were being bombarded on the week of Christmas to everyone filing into their apartment on a Saturday. It was a Saturday so Nico and Jason usually bundled themselves in blankets, sat close together, and watched cartoons while they ate cereal nearly all day.

Thalia and Percy bursted into their apartment as they were leaning against each other, laughing over their cereal.

“Okay, lovebirds, we’re here.” Thalia announced. Nico and Jason jumped and separated at the sound of her voice. 

“Oh, uhm. . .” Jason stammered. 

Percy shook his head. “We can talk about your canoodling later. We have a Christmas Eve party to plan.”

Jason and Nico sighed. “Why do we have to have that here?”

Thalia rolled her eyes. “Because you guys have the biggest apartment. Serious, four bedrooms, this place is huge.”

They all sat down and while Percy and Thalia raided the fridge Nico and Jason planned the entire party, paying for it all with Nico’s credit cards. 

When the party came an hour before everyone was due to arrive Jason and Nico stood across from each other in Nico’s bedroom, finishing putting on their suits.

“Do you think Percy will actually listen when we say this is a formal event?” Nico asked.

Jason shook his head. “Not at all. That’s why I told Annabeth. She’ll handle him well.”

Jason turned to Nico in his simple black suit and fixed his red tie. “You look great.”

Nico nodded. “Thanks. So do you.”

They walked out to the living room where everything was set up and when the doorbell rang Nico gulped nervously. 

Jason took his hand, their first conscious contact, and the weight of Jason’s hand in Nico’s comforted him. 

“We’ll be okay. You ready?”

Nico sighed. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

 

Five months after they got married Jason took Nico on their first date.

It happened like this.

Jason walked into the living room at five in the afternoon on a Saturday.

“Hey, Nico?”

Nico turned to him. “Yeah?”

Jason fidgeted. “My father, he gave me these reservations to this restaurant since my stepmother cancelled. Do you. . . maybe, want to. . . go?”

Nico gave him a small smile. “Sure.”

Jason perked up. “Oh. Oh, okay. Right. The car will pick us up at six.”

“Sounds like plan.”

Jason promptly went to his room to panic over the clothes he’d wear.

 

In the end Jason went with beige slacks, a green shirt, and a cardigan and when he emerged from his room he saw Nico come out of the room opposite of him and Nico looked amazing. He was dressed in dark slacks and a green shirt and black tie. Nico tugged at his sleeves self-consciously.

“Is this okay?”

Jason smiled at him. “You look great. You always do.”

Nico nodded and gave him a smile.

They made their way to the restaurant and as they were seated Nico looked around. “It’s nice here.”

Jason nodded.

The first part of dinner past in awkward silence until Jason opened his mouth to say something and Nico cut him off.

“Is this a date?” He asked.

Jason stilled and paused for a moment. “I mean. . . Would you- would you like it to be?”

Nico shrugged. “We’re married after all.”

Jason smiled at him. “Then it’s a date.”

It was much easier after that and halfway through their main entree Jason asked Nico if he’d rather pick up street food on their way for a walk in Central Park.

“Please.” Nico agreed immediately.

They walked a few blocks, Jason seeing some of Nico’s men from time to time, and they leaned into each other, laughing at jokes only they understood.

When they got their pretzels and sat on a bench Nico let out a contented sigh.

“I always loved this city.”

Jason smiled at looked up at the towering skyscrapers. “Me too.”

“I was wrong about you.” Nico said softly.

Jason smiled at him. “About what?”

“I thought I couldn’t care about you. But it’s nice, being married to you. I like it.”

Jason’s smile grew wider. “I like it too.”

They stared at each other for a moment before Nico leaned closer and Jason leaned in as well and soon their lips connected.

It felt electric, sparks igniting something in Jason that was much older than he understood. He caressed Nico’s jaw and pulled away.

He smiled at Nico again. “I’m glad you married me.”

Nico smiled back at him. “I am too.”

 

That night they got home and took off their jackets and as they made their way to their separate rooms Nico paused.

“Hey, Jason?”

Jason turned around. “Yeah?”

Nico sighed and shuffled his feet nervously. “Could you. . . maybe sleep in my bed?”

Jason smiled at him and walked over to him. “I’d like that.”

They changed into their pajamas and got into bed, Jason wrapping his arms around Nico.

“Hey, Nico?” Jason whispered into the quiet.

“Yeah?” Nico responded.

“I had a lovely time today.” He said honestly.

He could feel Nico give out a contented sigh. “Me too, Jason. Me too.”

  


Jason ran into Percy’s apartment on a Sunday when Nico was busy with Hazel.

“I have a problem.”

“You’re in love with Nico.” Annabeth said without looking up from where she sat at the kitchen table, studying.

Jason looked at her in shock. “How did you know?”

Percy entered from his bedroom. “Come on, Jason. It’s not like we didn’t notice.”

Jason sat down in a chair opposite from Annabeth, his heart constricting. He hadn’t expected to actually like Nico di Angelo, let alone love him. And on top of it all it seemed everyone had noticed his downward slope, except for himself.

“What?”

Annabeth gave him a sympathetic look. “You’ve been married for six months now, Jason. And you were getting along. It was bound to happen.”

Jason shook his head. “What do I do?”

Percy chuckled. “Maybe you missed the memo, but he’s married to you. You just have to ask if he feels the same.”

Jason shook his head again. “He doesn’t. He said so when we first got married.”

Percy shrugged. “I don’t know, man. Six months is a long time. Things could be different.”

Jason slumped. “How would I even tell him?”

Annabeth smiled at him. “It’s easy, Just say it one day, nothing to fear.”

Jason got up and nodded. “Right. Right. I can do this.”

He got up and went out the door, rushing onto the street and hailing a cab to take him down. His heart raced as he ran up to the lobby of his apartment and he hopped from foot to foot as the elevator took him up. He ran out of it when it dinged and burst into his apartment, ready to confess when he saw Nico standing across from Thalia.

Thalia smiled at him. “Jason, there’s been some great news.”

Nico turned around and Jason could see that he looked at Jason with a sad smile. “Your father says you’re safe.”

Jason looked between them confused. “What?”

Thalia smiled at him wider. “You can get a divorce now, Jason.”

“What?” He said again, his world once again opening up beneath him.

Thalia put a hand on his shoulder. “You can stay friends with Nico and get divorced so you can find love, Jason.”

Jason looked over at Nico desperately, but Nico only looked away, excusing himself to go to his room.

Once the door slammed Jason shook his head. “I’m not getting a divorce, Thalia.”

Reyna looked at him with a knowing grin.

Thalia frowned. “I thought that’s what you wanted.”

Jason shrugged. “Maybe six months ago, but not now, not anymore.”

Thalia looked at him for a moment before she grinned. “You love him, don’t you?”

Jason shook his head. “Now, I need you to go, so I can tell my husband in private that I love him.”

Thalia whooped and gave Reyna a high five. “That’s great, Jason.”

Reyna began to push Thalia out the door, giving him a smile. “Good luck, Jason.”

“I want details!” Thalia urged, as Reyna pushed her out the door.

Once it slammed Jason took in a breath and walked down the hall to Nico’s room and knocked lightly. When he didn’t answer Jason opened it carefully and found that Nico was packing his things into a suitcase.

“What are you doing?” Jason asked, quietly.

Nico didn’t look up from where he frantically packed. “Packing. I need to go.”

Jason shook his head. “Nico, stop packing.”

Nico ignored him and continued with his packing.

Jason put a hand on Nico’s, which seemed to be shaking.

Nico pulled away as though he’d been shocked and he glowered at Jason. “You know, it was stupid of me, but I thought for a moment we could have something good.”

Jason shook his head, poised to speak, but Nico interrupted him. “But this isn’t exactly what I thought it was. And you know, everyone told me that if I gave it time you could love me, but you won’t ever do that. No one could do that in an arranged marriage like this one.”

Jason held Nico’s hand this time, carefully gripping him so he couldn’t let go.

“Nico, stop.”

Nico looked at him.

Jason sighed.

“We’re not getting divorced, Nico.” He said softly.

“We’re not?” Nico asked.

Jason shook his head and gave Nico a tentative smile.

“I can’t divorce my husband if I’m already in love with him.”

Nico stilled in shock and looked up at him. “What?”

Jason chuckled. “I would have expected a better reception to me just telling you I’m in love with you.”

Nico chuckled and showed him their interlinked hands, silver rings glowing. “In case you haven't noticed, we’re married, Jason.”

Jason laughed and kissed Nico’s ring finger and then kissed Nico. “Yeah, I guess we are.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew! This one really was the longest one I've done in a while.  
> Don't forget submissions are still being accepted and have a cosmic day! :D


	38. Vanilla Twilight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay so this chapter hit something deep in me??? Like, damn, I had MYSELF in my feelings, so just a warning this could make you a bit emotional. I hit a lot about what I thought of Bianca in terms of how I think she went about things in the book and how, if she had lived, that would translate into their lives now.  
> Or, in which Bianca becomes kinda the main focus, Jason misses Nico, and Nico comes to terms with things.

_**Prompt:** AU where Bianca didn't die but Nico is still very much like our canon Nico then one day they somehow switch bodies??? Maybe jasico just started then this happens... _

 

* * *

 

**_The stars lean down to kiss you_ **

**_And I lie awake and miss you_ **

**_Pour me a heavy dose of atmosphere_ **

**_'Cause I'll doze off safe and soundly_ **

**_But I'll miss your arms around me_ **

**_I'd send a postcard to you, dear_ **

**_'Cause I wish you were here_ **

 

The first thing Bianca noticed when she woke up was that everything ached.

Her legs, her arms, her eyes even, and she groaned loudly. When she did the sound sounded distinctly not like herself. After Artemis had taught her the hunting calls of the Huntresses she knew her own voice very well, so when she heard a soft baritone instead of her soft and slightly high-pitched voice she was more than worried.

She looked down and screamed.

Her pajamas were a pair of black pajama bottoms and she wore no shirt. Her problem, and the reason she screamed, was because for some reason now Bianca had the body of a teenaged boy. She could begin to feel every one of her nerves stand on end and as she panicked she looked around and found that dark swirling shadows had begun to gather in the room, moving impossibly fast and she began to feel terror grip her.

“Somebody!” She called in that foreign voice she hadn’t recognized.

“Help!” She cried out again.

A blond boy came bursting into the room.

“Nico! What happened?”

She was too scared to register what he had called her but she looked at him in panic.

“The shadows. I don’t know how to stop them!” She cried out again.

The blond boy walked over carefully, the shadows seeming to stay as far away from him, as though they knew him, and feared him. The blond boy wrapped his arms around Bianca and held her tight.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. Just breath in and out. Calm down just a bit.” He spoke softly.

Without her permission the body she was inhabiting began to relax in his arms. She leaned into the heavy weight of his wide set shoulders. The shadows began to recede back to their rightful places.

She looked up at him. “Who are you?”

He looked down and frowned. “Are you okay, Nico? It’s me, Jason.”

She got up at the name. “Sorry, give me a moment.”

She ran to the bathrooms in the cabin and locked the door before she turned to the mirror. Her eyes widened when she found that the boy staring back at her was her brother. She hadn’t heard from him or of him since Puerto Rico, when she got word that he was there, but by the time she’d gone to see him Thalia had said that he had already moved on with Reyna. Now she was staring at him, herself, someone in the mirror. He looked sickly, his skin clinging to him as though he hadn’t had a good meal in ages, and his eyes looked dark, with black bags under his eyes, but they also looked empty. Bianca was shocked by that most of all. She saw scars on his shoulder that looked like claw marks. She saw scars on his torso and his lower arms and nearly his entire body was riddled with marks of violence. She touched them gingerly, worried she’d violated his privacy somehow by looking at them when she was sure he showed no one.

There came a knock.

“Nico? Are you okay?” Jason called.

“Yeah, I’m fine, come in.” She called in her brother’s voice. It seemed so different now, deeper, riddled with a sadness she felt guilty for not understanding.

Jason cracked the door open as Bianca continued running her hands over the scars on her brother’s body. She looked at them in the mirror, horrified.

Jason sighed. “Hey, no, none of that.”

She turned to him and he looked at her. . . lovingly? _What?_

He took her hands, her brother’s hands, everything was so confusing.

He kissed her brother’s hands. “It’s okay.”

He moved to kiss her brother’s bare chest and she nearly flinched, but remembered that she had to be as normal about this, until she knew more. Jason placed kisses on her brother’s chest and his body instinctively reacted, feeling her with an unexplainable warmth centered around Jason’s kisses.

“These scars are a part of you, remember that. They remind everyone how strong you are.” Jason said softly.

Nico’s body instinctively leaned toward Jason, who meant him halfway in kind and Bianca had a lot of questions about this entire situation. First, the fact that his body felt so weighed down and tired and she had a few ideas of how that had happened. Second, the fact that there was a built blond teenage boy currently kissing Nico, which was, _okay what??_

“Thank you, Jason.” Her brother’s voice spoke, though it was also her own.

He smiled at her brightly and pulled him back to there the dressers and beds were.

“Come on, you have to get dressed so we can get to breakfast, otherwise Chiron will reprimand us again.”

Bianca raised an eyebrow. “Are we usually late to breakfast?”

Jason blushed. “You know we are.”

Bianca looked away and began to change. Everything felt weird, limbs she found she could control, but out of place in them. She pulled on one of her brother’s shirts and pants and looked over to where Jason waited by the door. He took her brother’s hand and smiled at her before they began to walk to the dining area. She looked around to find that people were staring at her, or, moreso, her brother.

She leaned in and whispered to Jason. “Is it just me or is everyone staring?”

Jason chuckled. “They’ve always done that. Don’t mind them.”

He squeezed her hand and her body relaxed almost immediately.

“Hey Nico!” Percy called.

She turned to the sound of his voice and smiled at him. “Percy! It’s so good to see you! You look so different now!”

Jason and Percy exchanged a glance before they both turned to her.

Percy raised an eyebrow. “From when? Yesterday? What changed?”

Bianca stuttered, but couldn’t recover.

Jason turned to her. “Nico, what’s my last name?”

Bianca’s eyes shifted, looking for a way out of this situation, but she couldn’t, and she just looked back at Percy and Jason.

“I. . . Uh, I. . .”

Percy turned to Jason and they both looked at her in turn. “Who are you?”

Bianca took a deep breath and sighed, closing her eyes tight. “I’m Bianca di Angelo, Hunter of Artemis.”

Percy sighed and looked at Jason, more put out than anything else.

“ _Why?_ ” He said simply, following it with a sigh of frustration.

Jason sighed.

 

**_I'll watch the night turn light blue_ **

**_But it's not the same without you_ **

 

The first thing Nico noticed when he woke up was that he was in a sick bay. Not Camp Half-Blood’s either, he had gotten well acquainted with it when he’d been forced by Will to go and rest for a week, but this was not there. He looked over to find that Thalia was sitting by his bedside.

“How are you feeling, Nico?” She asked.

He shook his head. “A bit-”

His eyes widened and he looked down again. He wasn’t wearing his pajamas, he was wearing the silver park and camo pants and hunting boots. He looked up at her.

“Who,” Nico knew that voice, would have known that voice anywhere, “why do I sound like Bianca?”

Thalia grabbed a mirror from his bedside and sighed. “You don’t just sound like her.”

He looked in the mirror and found twelve year old Bianca di Angelo staring back at him.

“Ah!” He screamed.

Thalia nodded. “Yeah, it might be a problem.”

Artemis walked into the sick bay tent just then and looked at him. “I see you have woken up, son of Hades.”

Nico shook his head. “How-how did any of this happen?”

Artemis sighed. “A group of campers from your camp. They wanted to play a prank, but that sorceress’s daughter, Lou Ellen, I believe, she gave them the wrong potion. It was a body switching spell.”

Nico shook his head. “What in Hades? How do we fix it?”

Artemis sighed. “That is where I fail to be able to help you, son of Hades. This is not within my powers as a goddess, this magic must be broken some other way.”

Nico shook his head, thinking about Bianca back at camp, and how scared and confused she must be. He thought about how Jason would have told her by now, in some way, about their relationship.

“Oh my gods.” He said.

Thalia looked at him as he buried his head in hands. “What?”

He looked horrified when he looked at Thalia and the goddess. “She’s going to figure out I’m dating Jason Grace before I’ve even told her I’m gay.”

Thalia’s eyebrows furrowed. “You’re dating Jason?”

Nico looked at her sheepishly. “Yeah.”

Thalia cursed. “That little gorgon. I called him two times last months, and he didn’t tell me anything about that.”

Nico shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

Artemis stepped forward. “Being that as it is, Nico, you are more than welcome to stay for a few days. Perhaps you could even decided to stay with us as a huntress.”

Nico looked at her in shock. “What?”

Artemis stood taller, even in her twelve year old form. “You have a great deal of powers that could be useful to us, you have a great deal of strength that no others recognize, but I have seen it, Nico di Angelo. And as a huntress, should I change you into one, you could live forever with us, not a care in the world, no more boys and certainly no more heartache. You could stay forever by your sister’s side.”

Once upon a time Nico would have killed to have that offer given to him, to be with her forever. But then Nico thought immediately of Percy Jackson, and how a year ago he’d confessed on Half-Blood Hill and he thought of all those years of torturing himself with the what if’s and maybe’s and so many other things. But he also thought of Jason, who first was always a friend, and then a lover. He thought of days soaked in sunlight as Jason kissed every one of his scars and told him that he wasn’t handsome, or perfect, but that he was beautiful, and it was the first time anyone had ever told him he was. He thought about Jason’s plans for them to move to New Rome in the Autumn so Nico could go back to school and Jason could continue his work as Pontifex Maximus and they would come home to each other every day.

He shook his head. “You know why I have to refuse. Even if that is a kind offer.”

Artemis shrugged. “You once took very great care to protect my hunters, and they returned the favor in kind, but you are humble and you helped win the war, so I shall not take that as a slight against me, though I do think you are making a mistake.”

Nico nodded.

Artemis turned to Thalia. “I shall relieve you of your duties for a time. I would very much like you to escort Mr. di Angelo back to camp. He is vulnerable in this body and hardly knows how to control it. Plus unlike some of us, I have noticed you enjoy seeing your brother.”

Thalia bowed. “Yes, my lady.”

Artemis turned to Nico before she exited the tent. “The offer still stands. You could stay with your sister. All you have to do is renounce the company of men.”

Nico sighed and looked at her. “I have done it all my life, and if you’ll pardon me, Lady Artemis, I don’t intend to do it anymore.”

Artemis smirked at him. “It’s a shame. I would have liked a hunter like you by my side.”

Nico shrugged. “You have my sister.”

Artemis shook her head. “You are not mutually exchangeable, Nico di Angelo. You have your strengths, and she has hers, but just as you have your weaknesses, she does as well. Remember that, son of Hades.”

He nodded and she left the tent. Thalia grinned at him. “That’s the nicest she’s ever been to any male, ever.”

Nico got up carefully and noticed that he felt something in his bones, an unknown strength, but he felt his limbs light and sturdy, healthy. Nico couldn’t recall the time when he’d been like that, light-footed and healthy.

Thalia pulled on her bow and quiver and she had a camping backpack already in the other hand. She took Ambrosia and Nectar from the shelves of the medicine cabinet and turned to him.

“Ready to go?” She asked.

Nico nodded.

 

**_Because it takes two to whisper quietly_ **

**_The silence isn't so bad_ **

**_'Till I look at my hands and feel sad_ **

**_'Cause the spaces between my fingers_ **

**_Are right where yours fit perfectly_ **

 

“What do you mean you messed up a prank, Travis?!” Jason shouted.

Travis flinched as sparks erupted in Jason’s hands.

“Well, you see, we kinda wanted to pulled a prank where we gave him a truth serum and made him tell us the details of your relationship?”

Jason frowned. “Do you know how stupidly dangerous that is?!”

Travis and Connor looked at each other and gulped.

Connor visibly swallowed “I think that in hindsight. . . that might have been a little. . . dangerous.”

Jason’s hands began to spark more, his upset visible, and Percy put a hand on Jason’s chest, pushing him back.

“Jason, come on, we have to go find a way to fix this. Leave them.”

Jason took a step forward. “You keep those pranks away from Nico. Or _else._ ”

Travis and Connor nodded quickly, walking quickly to sword fighting and Bianca looked on as Percy calmed Jason down.

“You are very protective of my brother.” Bianca said.

Jason looked up and sighed. “I guess. In case you haven’t noticed, he kind of needs it. He has the self preservation skills of a dying otter.”

Bianca chuckled and Jason looked at her for a moment before he shook his head. “It’s still so weird. I kissed my boyfriend’s sister.”

Percy chuckled. “Technically, you still kissed Nico, it’s just, not completely Nico.”

Jason gave him a deadpanned look. “Now is not the time, Percy.”

Bianca cleared her throat. “I understand it must be difficult to understand. But I have questions for you.”

Jason nodded. “Go ahead.”

Bianca cleared her throat again and glanced at Percy. “Maybe we should go somewhere more private.”

Jason and Bianca stared at Percy and he put up his hands. “Hey, hey, I can take a hint.”

He left and Jason and Bianca waited until they were back in the Hades cabin until they spoke. Bianca splayed across a bed, finding her limbs were more tired than ever and pained. Bianca wondered how Nico lived like this, constant pain and aches and tiredness.

“Why didn’t he tell me?” She said quietly. They both knew what she meant.

Jason looked over at her. “The honest answer?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

Jason sighed and sat on a bed across from her. “He was scared. He’s always so scared of what the people who love him will think.”

Bianca shook her head. “I, Bianca, I would have loved him regardless.”

Jason nodded. “That’s what I told him, but he had to find the strength to do it himself.”

Bianca turned to him. “How long have you know him?”

Jason shrugged. “A year and a half, give or take.”

“And how long have you been dating?”

Jason blushed. “We’ve been dating for seven months.”

Bianca looked up at ceiling. “You love him, yes?”

Jason shrugged, his face still red. “We never really said it, but yeah.”

Bianca nodded. “He loves you, too. I am in this body and everything is foreign, but the one thing this body recognizes is its love for you.”

Jason smiled brightly at her. “That’s good.

Bianca turned to him again. “Tell me, is he happy with you? Happy here?”

Jason shrugged and nodded.

“For a while he wasn’t. For a really long time, actually, but he founds his way back after the war and we became friends and he stayed longer, ate more, and then. . .” He trailed off.

Bianca smiled at him. “You fell in love with him.”

Jason let out a breathless chuckle and nodded. “Yeah, I guess I did.”

“Tell me more. How about your relationship with my brother?”

Jason looked sheepish. “Maybe he should tell you about that. I’m not sure he’ll appreciate me giving you the gory details.”

Bianca chuckled. “You’re probably right. But Jason,” she smiled at him wider this time, “thank you. Thank you for loving him the way he deserves.”

Jason nodded. “It’s been my privilege.”

Bianca lay there for a moment, trying to relax her brother’s sore muscles, until she groaned loudly.

“How does he do it? It feels like I’ve been hit by a truck.”

Jason chuckled. “It’s his thing, he never takes a moment to rest.”

Bianca shook her head. “He may have turned the tides of the war, but he is still my brother, and now he’s my self-sacrificing, idiot kid brother.”

Jason laughed and for a moment they said nothing.

Until a shimmering image appeared in the cabin.

It was Thalia. She was sending them an iris message.

“Jason!” She called.

He turned to her. “Thalia! Is Nico with you? Or, erm, Bianca?”

Thalia nodded. “He’s been resting, we’re on our way now, we should be there tomorrow night.”

Bianca saw herself appear in the image. Instead of the formal and confident way she knew she stood when she saw herself in pools of water at their campsites sometimes now her body was slumped slightly, and her eyes shifted nervously everywhere, as well as her hands jittered.

Jason smiled brightly, honestly, when he saw Bianca.

“Nico! Thank the gods. Are you okay?”

Bianca heard herself speak gruffly. “I’m fine, Superman. You don’t need to worry, your sister is taking good care of me.”

Jason looked fondly at Nico in Bianca’s body. “I always worry about you. Be careful.”

Nico in Bianca’s body rolled his eyes fondly and gave him a shy smile. “Okay.”

Thalia looked at Jason. “Oh, and by the way, death boy here told me all about you and him, and don’t think you’re not gonna get it from me tomorrow.”

Jason gulped and looked over at Bianca. “Oh, uh. . .”

Bianca shook her head rapidly. “Oh no, this isn’t my problem.”

Jason also leaned in and kissed Bianca in Nico’s body on the forehead fondly, like he’d gotten used to doing. But he shook his head and turned back to his sister. “Sorry, wow, the connection is breaking up.”

“We see you perfectly fine!” She said.

He slashed the image and turned to Bianca who was regarding him strangely.

“What?” He said.

She shook her head. “Nothing. I just noticed how you talked to my brother.”

Jason’s eyes widened with worry but she shook her head again and chuckled. “No. It’s a good thing. You have such kind eyes with him. I’ve never seen anyone look at another like that.”

“Is that a good thing?” He asked, worriedly.

She nodded. “Yes, extremely. Love it hard to come by in such large quantities and the fact that you have so much to spare for my brother is really comforting.”

Jason nodded, unable to find anything else to say.

Bianca sat down again, her muscles needing rest again. She groaned.

“I’m giving Nico a talk about this when I see him. My stomach rumbles constantly, my skin feels so sickly and pale, and my bones and muscles ache constantly.”

Just as she spoke the dinner bell rang and Jason smiled sympathetically. “Let’s get you some food, then.”

At dinner Jason sat with Bianca, who looked like Nico, and watched her heartily stuff his body with plate after plate. Jason watched on in amusement while the girl who looked like Nico ate and ate. Once she was done Jason chuckled.

“Are you full?”

Bianca nodded, rubbing her stomach, which was Nico’s. “Yes, finally. I am surprised he doesn’t eat as much. He’s a growing boy and not eating is certainly not going to help him get any stronger.”

Jason shook his head. “Nico’s plenty strong just the way he is.”

Bianca nodded. “I agree, but he is unhealthy, and in constant pain. It wouldn’t hurt him to eat a bit more.”

Jason shrugged. “He’s getting there.”

She nodded. “Of course. And I appreciate you helping him there.”

Jason nodded.

 

_**I'll find repose in new ways** _

_**Though I haven't slept in two days** _

_**'Cause cold nostalgia chills me to the bone** _

 

As they walked back to Cabin Thirteen Bianca, as Nico, looked at Jason. “Is he still upset that I left him?”

Jason looked at her for a moment with what looked like a conflicted expression, and she remembered that for the moment he was talking to another person in his boyfriend’s body, and she thought maybe he thought he was violating Nico’s privacy in telling her things.

Bianca shook her head. “If you’d rather not, then feel free to tell me. I wouldn’t want to betray the trust you and Nico have.”

Jason shook his head. “It’s not that. . . I was just thinking.”

He paused for a moment before beginning again. “He was. For a long time he’d been so alone. What you did to him, it hurt him. He was so young and so alone, and then everything with Percy. It wore him down, and there was no one there to help him and soften the blows.

“In a lot of ways Nico and I connected because of that. I could never blame Lady Artemis for taking Thalia, because she did it because she wanted to, and so did you, but that doesn’t mean it hurts any less to know you have to depend on yourself at such a young age.”

Bianca regarded him for a while. His stood tall, proud like the Romans she’d met when she went to the Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood party. His blond hair was close cut and neat, his glasses squared and equally neat. He had scars on his face, neck, and the parts of his body she could see outside of the orange camp t-shirt and jeans. His eyes were blue, light as the sky in midday with gray at the edges. Her body, her brother’s body, saw his eyes and her heart rate slowed subconsciously, calming. She thought of her brother, of Jason Grace, and how much they had in common.

“Tell me more. I want to know. How do you feel about me?”

Jason shifted nervously. “You or Nico?”

Bianca shrugged. “Me, Bianca. What opinion do you have of me?”

He wanted to shake her, to yell at her, to explain that he’d been forced away from his sister, but she’d chosen to _leave_ Nico, as though it wasn’t the most important decision in either of their lives. He wanted to yell at her, like he’d promised himself internally so many times, yell at her for being so selfish she left her only brother in the care of strangers. He wanted to tell her how Nico could never hate her, but he’d be righteously indignant for the both of them.

 _He was just a kid!_  He remembered wanting to yell to her.

Instead he looked at her. He sighed.

“You don’t want to know.”

She perked at that. “Oh? And why is that?”

He frowned, sad and upset. “Because I don’t like you. I know I’ve never met you before, but every time Nico talks about how great you are, or how you had to do what you did, I just can’t imagine it. We go through it every time. He’ll be hurt, and I’ll tell him he’s right to be hurt, but instead he just makes excuses for you.”

Bianca shook her head. “I never asked him to do that.”

“You didn’t have to,” he said passionately, “don’t you get it? He’d do it even if you didn’t ask because he loves you so much. And every day he’s struggling to understand why you left him behind just so you could be an immortal huntress.”

Bianca frowned. “I love him. I have always loved him no matter what my choices were.”

Jason glowered. “Then why leave him? Why leave him in the hands of strangers if you truly loved him?”

She opened her mouth but he continued, pacing and running a hand through his hair.

“And it’s not like I’m trying to be difficult here! These are things he’s told me before, things he actually believes. And there’s so many times I rehearsed finally telling you off, because he’s hurt. And he’s my boyfriend, and I can’t stand to see him get hurt by someone he loves, because he did that enough with Percy Jackson, but he still hurts because of what you did.”

Bianca sighed. “I did what I had to do, Jason. It was my choice, and I couldn’t babysit my little brother for the rest of his life.”

Jason scoffed. “He was ten! He was hardly a grown-up being babied! Because of what you did he had to grow up faster than normal kids. I mean, I was raised by wolves but I was never really pressured to grow up too fast. Because you left he had no _choice_.”

She looked down in shame, taking a calming breath before she turned back to Jason. “I won’t apologize for being selfish, Jason Grace. Nico and I had been together for much longer than you’d even been conceived. And while I do admit it was selfish of me to do that, you cannot judge me for something that you don’t understand.”

Jason let out a long sigh. “And I get that. But would it hurt you to call him sometime? To just call him and ask him how his day is? If he’s eating enough? Just call him to hear his voice.

“I’ll grant it to you that you leaving was your choice, and no one can fault you for that, sure, but when you left, Bianca, it was without a trace. It was like you _d_ _ied_. And for the way you never called or talked to him or sent letters or visited, you might as well have.”

She felt her heart seize at his words. She thought about how Nico was now fifteen and since they’d been taken out of the casino when he was ten and she’d joined the Hunters of Artemis the number of times she’d called him could be counted on one hand.

“I. . . I was busy. I’m sorry I wasn’t there enough.”

Jason sighed and began to walk away, his hands in his pockets and his shoulders hunched in defeat.

“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to, Bianca.” He called to her in the quiet.

 

**_But drenched in vanilla twilight_ **

**_I'll sit on the front porch all night_ **

**_Waist deep in thought because when_ **

**_I think of you I don't feel so alone_ **

 

Thalia and Nico sat around the fire somewhere in the woods of Spain.

“So you and my baby brother, huh?” She asked.

He nodded gruffly. “Yes.”

She looked at him from the fire. “You know, kid, you’re good. I’m glad Jason is with you.”

Nico nodded. “Thanks.”

Thalia sighed. “And I know that you had a lot of trouble. The entire camp was talking for weeks after you told Percy you used to like him.”

Nico nodded, he remembered the stares.

She shook her head. “But those kinds of things, they take guts man. Defeating some stupid unknown evil? We get that all the time. Facing fears that gods can see in your mind? Easy. But saying what you’ve wanted to for ages, saying things you couldn’t imagine saying in another time, those things take real guts.”

He looked at her and he was reminded of how much he missed Jason in this foreign land and this foreign body.

“Do you think I was stupid to turn down Lady Artemis’s offer to be turned into a Huntress?”

Thalia shrugged. “That’s on you. Personally, I don’t think that life it’s for you.”

“Why?” He asked, with furrowed eyebrows.

Thalia chuckled. “You remind me of Jason. When we talked, really talked, a while ago, he talked about moving to New Rome and building a life there. He talked about how he wanted to build a family and a permanent thing. I think that after all these wars and after all your traveling in shadows, you want to find something solid.”

He thought about how home would one day be Jason. He nodded. “You’re right.”

Thalia smiled. “See? So it doesn’t really matter if I thought you were stupid, you made your choice, and your sister made hers, and you made them because you know what you want.”

He looked into the fire. “I used to be so angry at you and the hunters for taking her from me.”

“And what changed?” She asked softly, though Nico knew that a lot of the time Thalia never said or did anything softly.

He shrugged. “A lot. I have friends and a life now. I have a life I want to build.”

Thalia smiled. “With my brother, right?”

Nico smiled shyly. “We’re moving to New Rome in the Autumn. I don’t want to be so stuck in the past that I can’t enjoy what we’re making right now.”

Thalia laid back in her sleeping bag, sighing sleepily. “Not for nothing, Nico, I think you deserve it.”

He lay back in his own sleeping bag and looked up at the stars in the sky and wondered if somewhere at Camp Half-Blood Bianca could see the shimmering lake he missed so much.

  


_**When violet eyes get brighter** _

_**And heavy wings grow lighter** _

_**I'll taste the sky and feel alive again** _

_**And I'll forget the world that I knew** _

 

When Bianca woke up the next morning there was an excess amount of people in her cabin.

Jason stood next to Percy and Annabeth along with Lou Ellen.

Bianca sat up. “What’s going on?”

Percy waved at her. “Morning, Nico. Or, erm, Bianca? This is still very confusing.”

Jason pointed to the girl who stood beside Annabeth. “This is Lou Ellen. She’s here to tell you how to fix this spell.”

Bianca turned to her. “What is it?”

Lou Ellen shrugged. “Well it’s easy. Get Mr. D to fix the problem, as body dysphoria and fixing it is one of his gifts as a god. You just have to find the other person.”

Bianca nodded. “He’s on his way. By the way, what does this spell actually do? Why did Nico and I switch bodies?”

Lou Ellen shrugged. “The potion is meant to switch you with the person you most admire. I guess it turned out you and your brother admire each other a lot.”

She left the room and Percy, Annabeth, and Jason turned to her.

She sighed and lay back in bed. “Let us just wait until they show up.”

Her stomach grumbled and she got up. “On second thought, let’s eat.”

They went to breakfast and Bianca noticed that that morning Jason kept his safe distance from her.

They finished breakfast and Jason turned to her. “Nico usually helps me train around this time of day. But you can go rest if you need to.”

She nodded, feeling the burning of pain in her brother’s muscles. She went back to the cabin to rest her heavy limbs. She lay on the bed and looked around the room in the silence. She turned to find that there was a framed photo on the bedside table next to Nico’s bed. She looked to find there was Hazel, her boyfriend, though Bianca didn’t know his name, and there was a Hispanic boy, a Native American girl, then Percy and Annabeth, and Nico and Jason, and finally Reyna. She looked closer and though they all looked as though they all held a certain sadness in their eyes that she couldn’t see fully, their smiles were wide as they looked at each other. Reyna looked at Jason and Nico fondly and Percy and Annabeth smiled at each other as though they were aware that there was a camera and the Hispanic boy was smiling at Hazel and her boyfriend. They all looked as though the sadness in their eyes connected them on a deeper level. In all her time with the Hunters she’d learned that those secret smiles with sisters was sacred. She looked closely at Nico, his limbs even thinner than they were now, his grin looked as though he’d been trying to force himself not to smile. But Jason looked at him fondly and Nico looked at the camera, but she knew somehow that when the camera had taken the photo he’d been staring at Jason for all the moments before and after. She saw the way Jason looked at her brother, as though he’d seen the clouds breaking through a terrible storm.

She thought about how for the last five years she’d forgotten that she had left him behind. With the Titan War and then the war with Gaea she’d been so caught up in surviving and helping her sisters. Then Phoebe had died. And there was barely any time to mourn her service as they moved on, trying to defeat Orion, trying to save their mistress from being torn apart and forced back to the island of Delos. She’d been consumed by the wars and when she heard of Nico and her father on Mount Olympus the day the Titan War ended she had wanted to see Nico, to explain why he hadn’t seen her since she’d left with Thalia and Artemis in San Francisco. But Artemis was moving on, hunting down the traitors of Mount Olympus, and Thalia had said that they needed to go. She’d been so close, just outside the throne room, watching as Percy Jackson rejected godliness to spend the rest of his mortal life with Annabeth Chase. She saw Nico sitting at the foot of their father’s throne. At the time she’d convinced herself that the reason she hadn’t asked, begged, pleaded, to see her brother, was because one day he would need to let her go, for good.

He’d age, hopefully, and she’d stay twelve forever. He would move on with his life, and she would spend the rest of her life with Artemis. Bianca didn’t regret it, never had she wanted something as much as she had wanted this. But to say that that day in the throne room she’d walked away for his own good would have been a lie. She’d walked away because she was scared of what she would find nearly three years later. She heard from updates from passing demigods on quests about what he’d done with the labyrinth and what he’d done when Percy told him she wouldn’t be returning, ever. She was so scared that maybe she’d made the wrong choice leaving him behind, instead of begging him to join her, to have a family with her and the Hunters that they never found with their father. She was scared that he’d say all the things she didn’t wanted to hear. So she stayed away, but she looked at that photo, with all those smiling faces, and she knew that any one of these people would jump in the line of fire just to save him.

And she didn’t know half of them.

She had missed everything important about her brother’s life; his first love, his first kiss, his first time being away from her. She’d missed everything, and maybe, if Bianca was to ever regret a single thing about her choice, it would be that she knew this wouldn’t be the last time she missed big things. She might miss his son or daughter being born, or his wedding day, or his engagement party, or his anniversary. She thought of all the things she’d miss, and even if she loved the Hunters, there would always be a specially hole inside of her, specifically burrowed in her chest to remind her of what she’d given up to be immortal. She’d given up her brother, and she knew that.

Tears began to fall from her eyes as she looked down at those smiling faces and how her brother was at the center of the photo, a nuclear family forged from war, pain, and trust.

“Hey.” Someone said softly, right in front of her.

Jason was kneeled right in front of her and she was surprised to find she hadn’t heard him come in.

He put his hand over her where she ran her fingers lightly over the image of her smiling brother.

She looked up at him and her voice cracked as she continued to cry. “I hadn’t seen him smile so much as when he mentioned you all. I was so jealous that I had never made him smile like that.”

Jason sighed and looked down at the photo. He smiled wistfully. “This was taken at the beginning of this summer. Everyone was back and we thought that we should take a reunion photo.”

Bianca wiped her tears. “He’s happy. He’s happy without me. And I don’t know why, but that hurts. It shouldn’t hurt. This is what I wanted, for him to be happy without needing me.”

Jason wiped tears from her eyes as well, smiling sympathetically. “He misses you. More than he’ll ever let on, but he misses you like someone’s taken parts of his limbs. I think that for a lot of reasons you need each other.”

She looked down at the photo. “I was so scared to see him. That’s the real reason I never contacted him. I didn’t want him to be disappointed in me. Not after everything.”

Jason put his hand over her brother’s thin one. “He would never think that. You just have to talk to him, explain everything.”

Bianca looked up at him. “Do you think that could work?”

He nodded, eyes so kind and so blue Bianca understood why her brother had fallen in love with him. He stared at her in a way she’d never seen, as though down to his core Jason wanted to believe something in her was good despite never being given a reason to believe that. Jason was kind and caring and she appreciated that.

She sniffled and threw her arms around Jason.

“Thank you, Jason Grace.”

He stilled for a moment, before he sank into the hug and wrapped her in his arms, secure and comforting.

 

_**But I swear I won't forget you** _

_**Oh if my voice could reach back through the past** _

_**I'd whisper in your ear:** _

 

That night when Nico arrived, looking like a twelve year old Bianca Jason nearly doubled over in laughter.

“Oh really funny, Grace.” He’d said, trying to sound menacing. But being no more than four feet and a few inches give or take with his arms crossed in his silver park Jason chuckled and called for Mr. D.

Mr. D strolled into the clearing of the woods where Thalia had told them to meet them. He snapped his finger and Nico shuddered beside Jason and Bianca shuddered beside Thalia and without much fanfare they were both back in their bodies.

“Now if you’ll excuse me.” Mr. D said, bored and already making his way back to camp.

Nico felt his arms and limbs and made sure everything was in order. His body felt different, he also noticed that he wasn’t hungry, and that his muscles hurt considerably less. He looked over to find Bianca looking at herself as though it was a wonder she was back in her body. She felt that glowing aura surround her and slow things down again and she felt like she belonged in her skin.

She looked and found that she had to look up now to talk to Nico. “Nico. It’s been quite a long time.”

Nico turned back to Jason with a sad and worried look in his eyes. Jason only smiled encouragingly.

He turned back to her and gave her a tentative smile. “Yeah. It’s been a while.”

Bianca held out her hand and she looked over at Jason, who encouraged her as well. “Maybe it’s time we had a long talk. About. . . a lot of things.”

Nico took her hand and they walked back to their cabin as Thalia stood next to Jason. They looked at them fondly until Thalia turned and punched him.

He looked over at her shocked. “Ow! What was that for?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “For not telling me you’ve been dating Nico di Angelo for seven months.”

Jason looked at her sheepishly and opened his arms. “Missed you?”

She rolled her eyes and threw her arms around him. “I missed you too. Now come on, I need some rest.”

She threw one arm over his shoulder and arm in arm they made their way back to their cabin.

 

Nico and Bianca talked for a long time. She talked and talked and talked until eventually they both saw the orange hue of sunrise bleeding into the sky.

She turned to the sky, both of them sat up on the roof of the Hades cabin. “Soon I will have to return, Nico.”

He looked away from her. “I know.”

For a moment it had been just like before, the two of them, just two of them and no one else for them to worry about. But Nico was reminded that that was then and this was now, and Bianca would have to get back to the life he’d been living.

She gripped his hand. “I was inside your body, Nico. Which is so weird to think about, but I just. . . I saw so many things, and I realized so many things, and I want you to know that I’ll try to stay in touch.”

They looked over to the edge of the forest where Artemis stood. They saw Jason and Thalia walking over to her.

They walked over. Nico looked at the ground as he walked and Bianca fought so hard to think of something to say, anything to let him know that she understood the weariness of his bones and the tension of his heart.

They were halfway there when Bianca stopped him.

“Nico, please, say something.”

He looked up at her then and she realized he was crying. He curled his fists. “What do you want me to say?”

She didn’t respond.

He continued. “Because every time I think of something all I come up with is just like that little ten year old, begging you to stay, even though I know that you won’t, and I don’t want to keep you here, like I would have if I’d asked you all those years ago. So I’m trying to be supportive but all I can think about is how much it hurts that you’re leaving again.”

She put her hand on his shoulder. “I’ll come back to visit you.”

He looked down at her and his eyes shimmered with tears. “And what happens when one day you don’t?”

She pulled him in for a hug and held him for a long time. “I will always find my way back to you. You have to understand that. I promise. Every day, I am thinking of you.”

He held her tighter. “I need you to live. There’s so many things you’ll miss. I don’t want you to miss things.”

She pulled away and smiled at him. “Neither do I. I want to be there for you, Nico. I just need you to teach me how.”

He nodded and they walked the rest of the way to where Jason and Thalia were giving each other their good-byes, and Bianca turned to Nico.

She took off the dog tags around her neck that she kept hidden. She put them in Nico’s hand.

“Take these. They’re enchanted. Any time you need help, or you’re in trouble, whisper to these, and I will always be there.”

Nico clutched them tight and embraced her for one last time.

“I love you.” He whispered.

She felt tears spill over in her eyes and she clutched him tighter. “I wish you could come with me.”

He pulled away and put the dog tags around his neck. “We’ll always be together.”

She took a step back and looked at Jason.

“Thank you. For everything you’ve done. Treat him right.”

Jason nodded and took Nico’s hand.

Artemis turned to Thalia and Bianca. “My hunters, are you ready?”

They nodded and a stag drawn chariot came flying into view. Artemis stepped on, Thalia gave Jason one last hug good-bye, and Bianca clasped Nico’s hand tight as she stepped onto the chariot. He looked at her and she realized that even if she’d never regret her choice to become a hunter, she would always regret leaving Nico behind.

“I’ll be here again before you know it.” She said, hold his hand tighter as the chariot ride away and she was still reaching out as his hand slipped from hers.

“I love you.” She whispered.

Artemis turned and made sure that the stars, that faded with the sun’s glorious rising into the morning sky, delivered the message to Nico di Angelo, quiet, with the wind.

Nico watched them disappear into the early sunrise and he turned back to Jason.

“Let’s go sit by the water and watch the sunrise.”

Jason nodded and took Nico’s hand. “I’d like that.”

 

**_"Oh darling, I wish you were here"_ **

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa so this was emotional, and I have no idea but enjoy your salty salty tears readers. *cackles as I rub my evil gay hands together*


	39. I Never Want To Leave You But I Can't Make You Bleed If I'm Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is the author going overboard with her continuous need to put in songs she finds portray the feeling of the one-shot perfectly??? Is everyone going to get tired of it eventually??? Is everyone probably done with this author's shit???  
> The answer to both these questions is yes. 
> 
> Or, in which the author used this prompt as a means to finally do that Daredevil AU she's been itching to try out, Nico is Hell's Kitchen's well-to-do vigilante/lawyer, and Jason is, much like Foggy Nelson, the light of my life.
> 
> WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS TO THE DAREDEVIL SHOW ON NETFLIX,  
> ALSO This contains not so graphic depictions of violence, but there is mentions of it. Also there like one sentence about child abuse to please be warned about that

_**Prompt:** could you do one where Nico has a disability aka being blind, being deaf, in a wheelchair, uses crutches/Walker? _

 

* * *

 

When Nico was nine he saved a man about to get hit by a truck by diving in front of him and pushing him out of the way. He didn’t know it then, but some part of him, even as young as he was, knew what was coming. And when he impulsively dove in front of that truck and sacrificed his own life for that of another, he didn’t regret it. The man’s face, so scared and shocked as Nico pushed him out of the way, was the last thing Nico saw before it happened. The truck swerved, missing Nico narrowly, and when it did all the barrels of toxic waste that were strapped to the back of the truck came falling out. Nico barely had time to react before he turned and chemicals were in his eyes.

The world burned, raged with a red fire, and he could hear Bianca calling for him, hearing and seeing the commotion and praying he was okay. Nico wasn’t very religious, because Bianca had never been, but he found God then, staring up into the sky and finding nothing but hellfire and redness.

“I can’t see! It burns!” He yelled over and over and over, praying God heard him, praying God took away whatever it was he’d given him.

“Nico!” Bianca yelled. But Nico turned and he couldn’t see her. He could only see that world on fire.

“I can’t see, Bianca!” He cried, and he wondered why he was crying.

She held him in her lap, and she cried for him, and she rocked him back and forth. “It’s okay, Nico. It’ll be okay, Nico. Don’t move, Nico, it’s going to be okay.”

“I can’t see.” He says over and over again, the images of the world giving way to a hideous world of red tints and morphed shapes.

“Just stay still, Nico. It’s going to be okay.”

Her voice was soft, and Nico cried out once more, wishing for all the world that her face, her kind and beautiful face, was the last thing he saw before he went blind.

The ambulance comes and Nico tells them he can’t see. The ambulance comes and Nico cries because he can’t see. The ambulance comes and Nico doesn’t tell them how he can hear a couple arguing three block away all of a sudden.

 

Bianca was twenty two the day Nico went blind. She was older due to Nico’s mother not being ready to have children and then promptly having one and leaving them both behind with their father, who promptly left to California to live another kind of life. Nico never understood why his mother left, all he remembers is murmured good-byes and a blue suitcase. He remembers his father leaving even less, him only giving Bianca a check for twenty thousand dollars and leaving them behind to go with his unknown girlfriend to California, never writing and never calling. Nico doesn’t remember his father or his mother. He only remembers Bianca. He always told himself that if he ever got the chance to see one thing, just for a moment, just for a sliver of time, he’d choose to find a photo of Bianca and stare at it until the world on fire came back.

Bianca boxed to keep them with a house over their heads and food in their stomachs. She is fierce, beating more men than anyone is proud to admit, but she is also paid to lose when everyone notices she’s getting good. She swings like a champ, Nico remembers, she swings like she knows her fists will make contact, never doubting herself for a moment. She fights like a caged tiger, trying to fight for their right to survive. In some ways she is.

She has to fight more after Nico is blinded. She’ll have to pay for him to have reading material in Braille. She has to pay for his special education for school, for the textbooks made of Braille and the cane he needed for more than a few months.

She goes out and fights every day, and every day she loses.

She loses so much.

She comes back home, her hair braided from what Nico can feel, and her heart, which he shouldn’t be able to hear, beats slow, pained, tired. She has a cut lip she rinses with scotch. She tells Nico to drink a bit so his hands don’t shake as he stitches her forehead up. This isn’t the first time he’s done this, he did it even before he lost his sight. He takes the swig, and even though he’s blind he remembers how to stitch her up, as though he could stitch up the broken parts of her that are so worn out.

“I listened to the fight.” He says as he sews her torn skin, her torn spirit.

“Yeah, Nico?” She sounds like she has a smile on her face, but it also sounds tired.

Nico nodded. “You totally could have taken that guy.”

Bianca snorted. “You didn’t see the look of the guy, Nico.”

Nico shook his head. “I don’t need to see him to know you could have knocked him out with one hit.”

Bianca chuckles to keep from wincing.

“Beware of the di Angelo kids, they got the devil in ‘em.” She says, because their grandma always told them that. Nico knows it, before he lost his sight he would watch Bianca fight in that ring and nothing could make him forget the way her eyes darkened and she prepared for a hit. And you'd see it sometimes in the ring. Her eyes would go dead and she'd start walking forward real slow hands at her sides, like she wasn't afraid of anything. And the other guy, he'd see that look, and he'd try to get away from her. But Bianca always, without fail, she'd catch him and trap him in the corner.

Let the devil out.

Nico continues to sew her up. “Maybe one day you can hit the knockout hit.”

Bianca sighs as he finishes up and puts both her hands on his shoulders. “Remember Nico, it isn’t about landing the hit, we di Angelo's can take a hit. But always remember getting knocked down is all a part of life, it’s-”

“Getting back up that counts.” He finishes, because he’s heard her say it since they were left alone and she had to find a way to make ends meet.

She chuckles again and it sounds less tired. “You’re a good kid, Nico. Don’t fight like me. You’re gonna be the lawyer, remember?”

Nico had been reading Thurgood Marshall that entire month, convincing Bianca to get him books about the Supreme Court and about Thurgood Marshall. He quoted him daily, when he finally understood what the man meant.

Nico nods as he puts away the tools. “Yeah, Bianca.”

 

She has to lose a fight, the biggest fight of the season, if Nico is going to be able have food on the table.

He doesn’t tell her about the superhuman hearing or smelling or feeling. So she doesn’t know he’s listening when, at the gym while Nico is reading, her bosses ask her to fix the fight and lose.

“We need you to do this, Bi.” They ask.

“But. . . There’s another bet, we could make more money and cut the losses. . .”

Her bosses shake their heads. “Not a chance. Mr. Angelotti says if you don’t sway this fight there’s going to be hell to pay, and you know, Bianca, you can’t afford that risk with this little guy to take care of.”

He was listening intently, but at the mention of his presence and their heads turning to him, Bianca along with them, he looks down and pretends he’s reading Thurgood Marshall again. He knows how badly she wants to win, how badly she wants to show Nico that just once, in this horrible life they’ve been dealt, they can come out on top.

“Yeah. Okay.” She says quietly.

Nico can hear from her heartbeat that she’s lying.

 

Bianca calls her friend Percy the hour before the fight, her heart beating so fast she can hear it in her ears.

“Percy?”

“Yeah, you ready?” He asks, because he knows, he’s the only one who knows.

Her hands are shaking. She’s not ready. “Yeah. Just remember, that fifty thousand dollar deposit needs to made the /second/ the fight is over, okay, Percy?”

He shakes his head though she can’t see him. “You got it, Bianca.”

Bianca looks around to make sure no one is there to listen to her talk on the payphone in the gym.

“And remember, Percy, make sure that is made out to an account for Nico di Angelo.”

Percy knows this can only end badly, but if he can help little Nico di Angelo, he will.

“You got it, Bianca. And please, be safe.”

She nods, though she knows it won’t help. She feels sweat as she hangs up and calls another number.

“Hello, you’ve reached the voicemail of Hayden di Angelo, please leave a message after the tone.”

The tone beeps and Bianca let in a deep breath.

“Hey, it’s me. Listen, I know we haven’t talked in a long time. But something’s happened, and Nico. . . Nico’s going to need his father soon. So please, be there for him. I’m begging you.”

She hangs up quickly and she can begin to hear the chanting outside of the gym that leads into a small arena. She’s doing this for him, she has to, no one else will.

 

After the fight, when she wins, she knows Percy’s already on his way to cash in the money and when she receives the message on her phone that he’s done it she runs to her locker and rushes to get out of there as quickly as she can. She only has moments, but if she hurries she can make it. She can live with Nico and they can be set for life. But she thinks with hope too soon, because as she opens her locker in the reflection of her mirror she sees someone behind her. She turns, thinking of Nico one last time, and how she hopes he won’t grow up to be a fighter like her, like she was forced to be.

But the moment the gun goes off and she drops to the floor, blood pooling around her, the city has made the decision for Nico. Without knowing it, and without asking for it, that night the city killed a girl. But it got the devil as payment.

 

Nico listens the fight on television, and he cheers when he hears the announcers tell him that Bianca came out on top. He smiles and he keeps smiling, sitting there, waiting for her to come home so he can tell her how proud he is that they finally made it, they finally won. He waits for four hours.

He leaves the house with his cane, having memorized the walk to the gym because of how often Bianca went there. It’s empty when he arrives. Before he enters the locker rooms to check for her he smells a strong metallic scent. It’s salty and smells like iron. He’s taken care of his sister’s cuts enough that he knows that it’s blood. He knows enough to know it’s her blood. And there’s a lot of it.

He ditches his cane and runs forward, feeling for Bianca, feeling for her body, which he wishes desperately isn’t there. But he feels the body lying without a heartbeat on the floor, and he feels the scar on her cheek he patched up the week before and he knows.

He screams.

He screams so loud that everyone in the neighborhood hears him and an hour later an ambulance is carrying away Bianca di Angelo in a body bag.

He screams again, crying and lashing out and thrashing when people try to separate him from his sister. They eventually let him sit there for a while, no one willing to deal with a nine year old boy who kicks and thrashes as hard as he does.

He’ll move on as he gets older, fondly regarding his sister and everything she’s left him with, but never in his life will he ever be able to wash the smell of her blood off his hands.  

Bianca di Angelo lost every fight. Every fight except the single fight she wins before she dies. The day she does Nico screams so loud that a lady down the street swears she hears the Devil himself coming from Hell. And maybe Nico’s too young to know that the city made him, will make him, but he knows, later, that this is where everything starts.

 _Beware the di Angelo children_ , Grandma always said, _they got the devil in ‘em._

 

* * *

 

Nico met Jason when he was just a freshman in college.

It happens like this:

Drops of Jupiter is playing the background as Nico opened the door to his dorm, but it’s not nearly as unpleasant as the noises of sex he can hear going on in the room across campus, still loud and obnoxious to his ears. But Nico can’t ask the entire campus to shut up, so instead he focused on the song playing in his dorm.

“Oh come on!” He hears the distinctly male voice say.

He walked in, cane and duffelbag in hand to find a steady heartbeat and a vague shape radiating warmth.

He knocked as he opened the door.

“Hello it this room 312?” He asked, to keep up his appearances.

“Yeah. What is it?” The vague shapes asks gruffly.

He noticed that the vague shaped moved, most likely to look up from it’s position on the only other bed in the room. Then suddenly the heartbeat began to flutter, fast and faster as he stood up and went to shake Nico’s hand. Which he promptly drops, from what Nico can sense, he must see the cane.

“Oh! You must be my new roomie!” He stated happily, contrary to his voice just a few moments ago.

Nico nodded. “Hi. I’m Nico di Angelo.”

The vague shape nodded. “I’m Jason! You’re. . . You’re not from Hell’s Kitchen are you?”

Nico nodded, a small smile on his face. “Born and raised.”

Jason smiled widely and Nico could see the heat of his bright smile. “You’re the kid who saved that old guy and got your peepers knocked out!”

Nico gave him a look. “They didn’t get knocked it.”

Jason nodded. “Good, that would be kind of creepy, no offense.”

Nico nodded, feeling Jason’s heart fluttering again, but Nico relished in the easy conversation. “No, no, it’s fine. Most people treat me like I’m made of glass. I hate that.”

He shouldn’t have shared that, giving away too much information about himself, but it was easy to talk to Jason, and Nico hadn’t had anyone in such a long time, and despite everything that his mentor had taught him he desperately wanted one person to grow close to.

Jason nodded again. “Right. You’re just a guy. . . A really, really, good looking guy.”

Nico’s heart beat faster at the obvious attempt to flirt and he stammered. Though Jason was kind enough to cover it up immediately.

“I mean, girls must love that, the whole handsome, wounded duck thing.”

Nico nearly laughed out loud at that. Right. “Yeah. . . right.”

And even though Nico could hear Jason’s heart flutter fast as he looked at Nico, Nico could force that feeling down. Jason Grace would make a great best friend anyway.

 

Jason Grace is the best friend Nico’s ever had. Jason is polite about his music, showers often, and when Nico asks him to guide him Jason offers his arms with a flutter of his heart, and Nico ignores it, because it’s normal for Jason to do that. They call into a routine where Jason just offers his arm out without needing to be asked, and he offers vivid description of everything.

Jason is kind, in a way that Nico hasn’t felt since he was a kid, and he relishes in it.

The beginning of the end starts one night when Nico and Jason are drunk.

 

“Watch out, everybody! I'm Blind Nico di Angelo! Whoa!” Jason laughs as he stumbles, taking Nico’s cane as he walked ahead of him.

Nico laughs and takes it back from him. “Most people just say, ‘Nico di Angelo.’”

Jason smiles drunkenly at him. “I look like most people?”

Nico chuckles. “I don't know, I can't see you.”

Jason considers his dressing and the way his glasses are skewed and his hair, short as it is, looks unkempt. “Well, at the moment, that may be a blessing.”

Nico thinks about the Bar exam they have in the morning. “Oh, God, we should be studying.”

Jason laughs and offers his arm, which Nico takes, always taking it without question. “You're gonna graduate summa cum laude, you can take a night off!”

Nico nodded, glad his red glasses covered his drooping drunken eyes. “Yup, you'd be graduating with that, too, if you took a few less nights off.”

Jason waves him off good naturedly. “Point being, we are both one day gonna be fine, upstanding members of the legal profession. El grande,” he pauses and turns to Nico, “how do you say ‘lawyers’ in Spanish?”

Nico considers this for a moment. “Lawyers? Abogados.”

Jason flourishes his hands, arms waving, but Nico gripped him tight. “El grande avocados!”

Uncharacteristically, Nico laughs out loud, light and airy, and it goes straight to Jason’s heart.

“That's not Spanish, that's fruit.” Nico says.

Jason laughs. “It's a vegetable at best.”

Nico tisks. “See, that's what you get for taking Punjabi instead of Spanish with me, - just to chase a girl.”

Jason turns to him as they continue walking back to their dorm room. “What? No! I'm sorry. I'll have you know that Punjabi is the future language of the future of business. Couple years, we'll all be speaking it,” Jason blushed, “and she was so hot.”

Nico laughs again. “'She was so hot!' Yeah, say that in Punjabi.”

Jason stammered for a moment, struggling with his drunken psyche, until he heard Nico snicker from beside him. “Shut up! Kiss my ass! Are you trying to tell me that you didn't take Spanish - to snuggle up to what's-her-name -”

Nico furrowed his eyebrows. “What? A Greek girl? Well, I surely I would take Greek?”

Jason shook his head. “No, because she was taking Spanish. She already spoke Greek. Whatever happened to her? She was nice.”

The same reason why none of the women Jason thinks Nico’s taking home work out. He’s gay, and he’s not in the closest, but now that he and Jason have known each other for as long as they have he doesn’t want to have to come out of the closet again. So he let’s Jason speculate, but doesn’t tell him what he’s really doing. It's easier than explaining a blind man boxing.

Nico sighed. “It didn't work out.”

Jason blows a raspberry.

“When does it ever with you, buddy? How can I help you? What are you looking for, my young Padawan?” Jason mimics.

 _You_ , Nico thinks, _I’m looking for a way to make you fall in love with me without me hurting you like I know I will._

Instead he says, “I don't know. I guess just someone I really like listening to.”

They’ve reached stairs and Jason tugs on Nico’s arm. “Stairs, here.”

Nico squats down. “I would like to sit now.”

“Yes we sit!” Jason says drunkenly, “And then we forage for hamburgers and more libations!”

Nico scoffs. “How about just the burgers?”

Jason agrees and they’re silent, reveling in the quiet on campus, until Jason speaks up. “Hey, do you get the spins? Can you get those if you can't see?”

Nico nods. “Yeah, I get the spins.”

“Really?”

Nico nods again. “Yeah, it's an equilibrium thing, it's not your eyes. Liquid in your inner ear gets disturbed, has trouble leveling off or something.”

Jason makes a noise. “Huh. That sucks. I thought you might get a pass on that one.”

Nico shakes his head. “No, it's even worse for me, I think. 'Cause my senses are so-” he remembers that of all the things he shares with Jason this isn’t one of them, and his lips seal tight against his better judgment, “Mmm.”

Jason turns to him. “So what? Delicate?” He says softly.

“Hmm? Yeah you could say that.” Nico says it, and he hates how he has to lie to Jason.

“Hey, how old were you when you had your first drink?” Jason asks in a light and cheery tone.

Nico thinks automatically of Bianca. “Nine.”

“Nine?” Jason asks, although soft enough so that Nico knows he could refuse to take about it if he told Jason he didn’t want to.

Nico nodded, wanting to share every part possible with Jason, even if he can’t share the parts that really matter. “My sister gave me a sip from this bottle of Scotch.”

Jason laughs breezily. “Go, Sis!”

Nico sobers up as he remembers holding the needle in his hand. “She didn't want my hands shaking while I stitched her up.”

Jason waits and Nico continues. “She got cut pretty bad over her eye. Boxing match.”

“She win?” He says, and Nico knows that tone, the one that is full of sympathy. And from anyone else, Nico would ask them to let it go, but Jason means it, and Nico appreciates it.

He thinks about Jason’s question. He thinks about everything Bianca lost even when she won and he remembers that she said it didn’t matter who made the knockout hit, as long as you got up, and she never did.

“No.”

Jason puts a comforting hand on his shoulder and Nico wished he could lean in and listen to Jason’s heart when it used to flutter around him.

“She'd be proud of you, Nico.” A steady heartbeat. Truth.

“Thanks. All she ever wanted was for me to use my head, not my fists. Not like her.” He said sadly.

“My mom wanted me to be a butcher.” Jason attempts to lighten the mood.

Nico laughs thankfully as Jason continues. “I think she liked the idea of free ham.”

“Hey, they coming to graduation? Your family?” Nico knows Jason’s mother is no longer in the picture and all that he has now is his sister, her girlfriend, and all his friends from high school that he still keeps in touch with.

Jason smiles and just like that first time Nico remembers the warmth in his world on fire that he can see. “The whole extended brood. It's not every day a Grace breaks from the ranks of business soul-sucking tycoon and family rebel.”

“Jason Grace for the defense, Your Honor.” Nico says proudly, imagining himself at Jason’s side as though he always had.

Jason smiles and waves to the expanse of the campus before them even if Nico couldn’t see it. “We're gonna have big, fancy offices one day, with steel and glass and chairs you don't even know how to sit in. Di Angelo and Grace, attorneys at law!”

“Grace and di Angelo.” Nico says immediately, as though it was something he’d already run through in his head, which he had. “Sounds better.”

Jason beams at him and Nico wishes, not for the first time, that he could see Jason in his full vision, could see what he looked like with his description of blue eyes and blond hair instead of his world on fire. “You think?”

Nico gives him a small smile. “Yeah, trust me. I can't see worth shit, but my hearing's spectacular.”

Jason grins and pulls Nico tighter to his side. “Me and you. We're gonna do this. We're gonna be the best damn avocados this city has ever seen.”

And Nico laughs, the alcohol still buzzing in his veins, and he laughs along with Jason. He looks up at the stars and tries to block out the sounds of screaming and ambulances in New York City just a few miles away. For now Jason is enough.

The beginning of the end starts with Jason Grace and Nico di Angelo, drunk out of their minds, sitting on the steps outside a Columbia Law School library, making plans for the future. The beginning of the end starts when Nico di Angelo falls in love with his best friend, a man he’s never seen, but just really likes listening to.

 

They are _so_  close to the big, fancy offices and steel and glass.

Except that after they sit in a room and Nico hears a man riddled with cancer, tell Landman and Zack that his job gave him cancer, and then Landman and Zack go at the man’s lawyer like feral dogs with unsuspecting prey. They lay into the poor lawyer, telling him that they’ll be filing a counter lawsuit because the man was binded legal to confidentiality. Nico hears the man’s heartbeat and he never wavers as he tells them he never told anyone, no third party except for his doctor.

But Landman and Zack are already tearing into them and Nico can hear the man’s heart breaking and he hears Jason scribble next to him diligently. The man reminds Nico of Bianca, the little guy, always getting beaten down, unable to get a break. Nico feels sick to his stomach.

After, when Jason and Nico are sitting in their shoebox office with files on every wall crowding them, Jason sighs happily and Nico knows it’s not because of the case, but because he has good news.

“I just bumped into Morales. Guess what he heard? They're gonna offer us the job. No more interning in a broom closet. We're each going to have our own office with a view of something. We did it, Nico! Glass and steel at Landman and mother-effin' Zack!” Jason says enthusiastically.

Nico feels bile rise in his throat at the prospect of working with men like Landman and Zack. His pause just be a long one, because then Jason turned to him, straight on.

“Why do you have that look on your face?”

Nico furrows his eyebrows. “Oh. What look? I-”

“You know what look.” Jason interjects, because he knows that Nico does.

“I've been reading Thurgood Marshall.” Nico begins slowly.

Jason groans. “Oh, shit, not Marshall.”

“‘We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from-’”

“‘From the fear. Yeah, I know. You've read it a million times.” Jason tells him fondly.

Nico shakes his head. “You think what happened in there today was right?”

Jason sighed. “No, Nico, I don't think it was right. But according to the law, if he did disclose trade secrets to a third party other than his doctor-”

“He didn't.” Nico interrupts, sure as the heartbeat of that poor old man.

“How can you know?” Jason says, skeptical.

“'Cause I-I have a feeling.” Nico covers.

Jason sighed dejectedly. “Last time I checked, those are inadmissible.”

Nico thinks about Bianca, and all the people who always lose to corporations who can afford lawyers like Landman and Zack, just because they can’t afford it. His gut twists at the idea that he’ll be a part of something like that, something that Bianca would be ashamed of.

“Is this what you want to be a part of that? Protecting corporations from people that need help? It doesn't have to be like that. We get a toehold, make partner And then in 10, 15 years, we what? Change the system from the inside?” Nico scoffs, “On our way to work in our Bentleys?”

“You know how many of the other interns would kill for a real spot here? Murder us in our sleep without a second thought.” Jason argues. But Nico can tell from the light beating of his heart that he’s nervous, he already intends to follow Nico in whatever he’s implying.

“Well, then maybe those aren't the kind of people we should be working with,” he hears a sigh and Jason moving about in the office, “Jason? What are you doing?

“Well I'm gonna steal as many bagels as I can fit in this box,” Jason explains, “With you as my partner, there's no telling when I'll be able to afford a real meal again.”

Nico gives him a wide smile, not holding anything back for this moment. He can hear Jason’s heart race as he does and Nico wonders when that will ever stop, not that he’d want it to.

He chuckles. “We will get by.”

Jason chuckles and dumps all the contents of the filing box on the floor. “Come on, Mother Teresa, let's go save the world.”

Nico never wanted to save the world, not something so big and so full of responsibility. He only ever wanted to save Hell’s Kitchen. That was all he’d ever wanted.

And maybe to save Bianca too.

 

* * *

 

“Help! Help! Help me! Help! Help me!” Nico can hear the shrill high pitched screaming, and the desperate perspiration in the air. He can sense that there are at least three girls, and that they’re all scared out of their minds. They think no one is coming for them.

“Hey! Hey! Man, shut up. I'm getting $1,000 a head for y'all. So, you be quiet I let you have a bucket.” He hears a masculine voice bark.

“Please, no.” He hates the way he hears them beg, and he wonders of Bianca ever begged before those men shot her.

“Scream all you want. Come on, let me hear you scream.” The man barks out maliciously, there is a hint of sinister pleasure in his voice, as though he’s amused by the futility of their fight. Nico wants to save them now, spare the waiting and calculating and save those girls like no one saved Bianca.

He hears two men walking away and he springs. He jumps down from the crate in the junkyard right next to the one they’re forcing the women into and he begins to pound his fists left and right. He hears the breathing the men fighting him and he predicts the moves of those men before they happen and he unleashes the devil, fighting them, even throwing two of them into the icy Hudson river. He hears the man from early coming after him and he hears the faint metallic click of a gun and runs. He dodges and moves as quick as his mentor taught him and then he is vaulting and flipping over the man, promptly jumping on top of him, taking his gun, and pistol-whipping him with it. The man drops to the floor easily and he turns back to the women by the crate. He can hear three heartbeats, all of them pounding fast and hard and there’s nervous sweat in the air.

“Head towards 48th,” He says, an octave deeper, and gruffly, so as not to be recognized, “Stay in the lights. Flag down the first officer you see.”

The girls look at him in shock and he can hear the men coming to, so he barks, “Now!” to get them to double it back to a well lit road where they’re safer.

The men start to come to after the women are long gone and Nico flexes his muscles and knuckles, he needs this, needs to let the devil out.

 

Luke Castellan wants to make a better tomorrow, to save his city and clean it.

That is the only way Nico di Angelo and Luke Castellan are similar.

Luke is twelve when he kills his father.

He kills him after one day when he sees his father beating his mother. The smack is resounding, and after being forced into a corner, that bland corner of the blank wall, his vision blurs and he looks over to find his father strike his mother. She whimpers, a sound that reverberates in Luke’s bones and before he knows what he’s doing he grabs a hammer and beats his father.

He hits.

And hits.

And hits.

And hits.

He hits until his vision of red subsides and he can hear his mother begging him to stop. He does. He turns and expects her to call the police.

She just tells him to put on gloves and bring her a trash bag.

 

Luke Castellan has spent a very long time trying to build the crime syndicate he’s made. He spent years calculating his moves and taking from corrupt officials and crooked cops. He has all the power in his hands to finally destroy this city and build it from the ground up.

Except that there’s a small problem: the man in the mask.

More than once there have been reports that the man in the mask has been ruining Castellan’s operations, and he has ordered every nook of his partners own factions to look out for this idiotic vigilante trying to ruin Luke’s last chance to burn this city.

 

Nico meets Hazel Levesque when Jason and Nico are at the precinct to ask Percy for a case. He hears her in another room, sobbing about how Union Allied Construction sent someone to kill her, and Nico walks in. Jason and Nico convince her to let them represent her and she agrees, though she’s as wary as any New Yorker. Nico looks into her, making sure she’s not crooked, and finds out that she’s his father’s daughter. He worries she’ll be the second sister he has that will end up hurt or killed because of him, so he makes her play it safe. Jason and Nico manage to convince the company to back off, and tell her to take the company’s hush money until they can figure out a way to go after the company. They try and get as much help from Percy. Percy is, as far as Nico knows, the only good cop they have connections with. He’s a good guy, a good cop, and when Nico starts to get into more heated fights, catching more and more mafia members, he struggles to keep Percy out of it as much as possible. Percy also has his wife and newborn baby to go home to and Nico can’t risk it.

He’s beginning to realize the severity of what he’s done when Luke Castellan decided to bomb parts of Hell’s Kitchen and convinces the media and the crooked cops that Nico is a terrorist.

He begins to understand what he’s done with his nightly activities when he hears that Jason is in the hospital.

After the entire ordeal is over and Nico tries to answer the calls their secretary is making to him he runs to the hospital as fast as he can.

“Is he all right?” He asks Hazel as she watches Jason by his bedside.

She looks up at him. “He’s badly hurt and he had lots of shards on his back.”

Her voice is cracking as though she’s scared, which Nico knows she is. But she’s also strong, and her friend was shot in her apartment, but she still goes about her life, and Nico knows what it’s like to live with ghosts. But he knows that one day she’ll be okay, she’ll be okay, because her heartbeat is strong and so is she, even if she doesn’t know it yet.

Jason is hooked up to an IV and he groans when Nico walks into the room, but his heart is steady, weak but steady. Nico is thankful that no one he knows got hurt in his path of righteousness and justice. But he still feels guilty that somehow he cause Jason to be lying there in that bed, just by going after those Russians.

“Hey, Nico. You okay? We tried to call you so many times, we were so worried.” Jason says from his hospital bed.

Nico feels his broken ribs, the graze of a bullet wound on his calf, and the pounding headache he has and he wishes he could tell Jason the truth, about everything.

Instead he smiles weakly. “Just tripped on my way down the stairs from my apartment,” so that he can explain the bruising on his face, “I’m fine, Jason.”

Jason sighs contentedly and leans back, glad to have Nico by his side. Jason misses the days when they were always side by side, it seems those days are becoming fewer and fewer. “Good, because I’m going to need someone to take care of my frail body, Nico. And Hazel says you already volunteered.”

He’s trying to keep up the light mood, even as Nico can hear his breathing become more labored. Jason is trying so hard to stay positive so Nico doesn’t have to.

Nico chuckles. “Sure.”

Hazel is quiet, but from her breathing and the scent she’s giving off, Nico can tell that she’s feeling content for the first time in a while.

 

Nico meets Reyna when she fishes him out of a dumpster.

She sighs, as though this is a regular occurrence, and she tells a boy something in Spanish. He feels her carry him somewhere, he’s scared for a moment, but he’s so weak he can’t fight it.

“You’re an idiot.” is the first thing she says when he finally comes to.

“I get that a lot.” He mutters.

And thus begins a beautiful friendship. It mostly consists of her patching him up, taking care of him because she’s the only one who knows his secret, and telling him when he’s being stupid. Which, incidentally, happens to be a lot. She’s kind, from what Nico gets. She is some type of Latin, she works in the hospital as a nurse, and she is done with his shit the moment she meets him.

She also happens to be the nicest person Nico’s met since Jason. She ends up being the one who he tells everything to, he tells her all the things he can never tell Jason. Especially the part about being in love with him.

“You’re an idiot.” She says when he finally tells her.

“I get that a lot.” He says fondly.

She chuckles.

“Ever think of maybe just telling him?”

Nico shakes his head. “Can’t now. I have to save the city. And being with someone like Jason could put him in danger.”

Reyna rolls her eyes. “Do you realize where we live? It’s called Hell’s Kitchen for a reason. I am sure that Jason can defend himself.”

Nico shakes his head again. “If it gets wind that Daredevil and Jason are hanging out together they could use him to get to me. I can’t let that happen.”

She doesn’t say anything, even though from her heartbeat Nico knows she wants to.

 

The end of the end begins when Nico fights Ethan Nakamura.

Ethan is skilled, he’s lithe and lethal and he knows just how to fight Nico. Oh, and did he mention, _a fucking ninja_. It’s the first time Nico feels like he can’t win this. Ethan is using a throwing star attached to metal chain and it catches on Nico’s arm and it tears into his flesh as Ethan yanks him back. He is getting beaten badly, his ribs groaned from the effort, and his legs feel like lead, and her arms are bleeding and weak now. Ethan lands a devastating blow and Nico falls and knows he’s down for the count.

Until he remembers Bianca. He remembers how she gave up her life to give him a better existence, one where he could afford law school. He thinks about how she never got the wins she deserved, but Nico can win this for her. He can win this city back and take back what it stole from him.

_It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down, just as long as you get back up._

She never got to see him use his head instead of his fists, so he’ll use his fists now and he’ll win this because of her.

He’s got the devil in him, and it’s time to let him out again.

He gets up, hitting faster now, hitting harder, dodging more, feeling the adrenaline pump through his veins, and he kills Ethan Nakamura because he has no other option. Ethan won’t let him get away with this if Nico leaves him, so he has to kill him, and there’s already blood on Nico’s hands and he has to learn to be okay with this. He worries he’s like Luke Castellan, who kills without mercy and consequence.

He hears Castellan in the building and he goes after him.

Castellan is waiting for him, and once Nico took out his bodyguards he goes after Castellan with nothing but his fists. Castellan beats him bad, beats him even more than Nakamura did, and even at one point Nico swipes through his suit jacket with a sharp knife and it deflects the knife easily. Luke Castellan proceeds to beat him until Nico kicks him and gets the upperhand, beating him, beating him so badly he doesn’t even remember if he could kill him or not.

He just wants to let the devil out on the monsters of the city, people like Luke Castellan are the reason Bianca is dead. People like Luke Castellan are monsters that need to die, and Nico, devil in his heart and blood on his hands, needs to be the executioner. He knows he doesn’t want that, doesn’t want to stoop to the levels of someone of the likes of Luke Castellan, but he has to. Otherwise the city will continue to suffer, continue to bleed and allow itself to get consumed by violence and greed. All in the name of Luke Castellan’s great crusade.

But Nico is still human, and the only reason he’s not like Castellan is because he knows mercy, knows love and kindness, and all the parts of him that the city could never take out of him no matter how hard it tried.

Castellan is telling him they’re alike, but Nico beats him unconscious and leaves, because he knows they’re not, they never will be. Maybe Luke Castellan and Nico di Angelo are cut from the same cloth, consumed by a city that took everything they had a long time ago, but Nico is nothing like Luke Castellan. He knows this.

He groans and limps back to his apartment, ignoring the way that his muscles protest and scream after all he’s done that night. He goes through his window, which is usual. But he groans as he lands on the floor and misses the way there’s a second heartbeat outside his door, a familiar heartbeat. He hears his door open and he wants to open his eyes to see who it is, but he is so weak, and so tired, and even his eyes hurt. The last thing he hears is a voice speaking to him before everything goes black.

“Nico?” Jason says softly.

 

Nico wakes up and groans, trying to sit up.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” He hears someone say behind him.

He stills and listens and zeroes in on Jason. Jason’s breathing is carefully slow, as though he’s practicing being calm, so far past livid all he can do is stay calm. He smells as though he hasn’t taken a shower, and his sweat is laced with pheromones that tell Nico he’s angry, beyond angry, and he’s nervous and anxious, and distressed.

“But then again, maybe I would. What the hell do I know about Nico di Angelo?” Jason bites, because he’s hurt, or maybe because he’d been on his way to explain to Nico that whatever seems to be happening with these crime syndicates, Jason loves him. But he’s looking at Nico di Angelo, who is supposed to be Jason’s unassuming, blind best friend, and finds that Nico isn’t even that.

It hurts, that Jason is saying things like that. But Nico also knows how much it must hurt to be where Jason is, looking at your friend who is half-dead. There’s so many things that Nico wants to ask, wants to explain and confess, but he can’t. So he goes with the easiest question.

“You stitched me up?” He asks.

“No. That was your friend, the nurse.”

“Reyna?” Nico asks, not recalling her involvement at all.

Jason nods. “You had me get a hold of her after you took a swing at me for trying to get you to the hospital.”

“I don't remember. Sorry.”

There’s a beat of silence, terse silence with a hurt between them so tangible Nico feels the need to explain himself for the first time ever.

“Jason-”

“Just tell me one thing, Nico,” he interrupts angrily, “are you even really blind?”

Nico tells him about the world on fire, about the way everything is tinted with red and fire. He explains that he can see shapes. He hears Jason’s heart and it sounds like it’s breaking the more he goes on. Nico wishes there was something he could do to fix them, fix what he’s broken. But he can’t regret keeping this from Jason. It was to keep him safe and that’s what he’s done so far, so Nico won’t apologize for that.

“So, you can see.” Jason says, his voice so riddles with hurt Nico gulpes audibly.

“That's not. . . You're not. . . Are you even listening to what I'm saying?” He says.

Jason nods. “Yeah, world on fire, I got it. But you can see, right?”

Nico nods. “Yeah, in a manner of speaking. But I-”

Jason’s heart breaks a little bit more. “No! No manner! How many fingers am I holding up?”

Nico can see the shape of Jason’s hand and knows he’s giving Nico the middle finger.

“One.” He says softly.

“All these years, I actually felt sorry for you. I felt bad because of everything that had happened to you.” Jason says, his tone mired with shock and hurt.

“I didn't ask for that. I never- I never asked for that.” Nico says quickly, defensively.

“Yeah, I didn't ask to be lied to. I thought we were friends.” Jason says, his voice cracking at the very words.

“We are.” Nico says quickly, wishing that if he admitted it enough maybe Jason could forgive him for this, for everything. Nico wonders what it will take for Jason to forgive him.

“You've lied to me, Nico, since the day we met.” Jason says, and Nico closes his eyes even if he can’t see, and he knows this is his doing, but he can’t help the clenching of hurt in his stomach.

“What did you expect me to say, Jason? ‘Hi, I'm Nico. I got some chemicals splashed in my eyes when I was a kid that gave me heightened senses.’” Nico bit back.

“Well, maybe not lead with that.”

Nico shook his head. “I didn't even tell Bianca after it happened.”

“But you told that nurse, Reyna.” Jason says.

Nico shook his head again. “Because I didn't have a choice. She found me in a dumpster, all right? Half dead.”

Jason’s heart skips a beat and Nico knows it’s because momentarily, even through his hurt, Jason is worried about Nico. And judging from the way his heart reacts, Nico knows Reyna didn’t say anything, about any of it.

“She didn't tell you?” _About my nighttime activities_ , Nico thinks, _about me being in love with you even though I shouldn’t._

Jason shakes his head. “She wouldn't say anything about all this. She seemed nice.”

Nico nods, thinking of Reyna’s kind hands and firm voice, strong but soft. “She is.”

“Did you blow up those buildings? Shoot those cops?” Jason asks.

“You really even need to ask that?” Nico asks right back.

“Yeah, I think I do.” His heartbeat is off. Lie. He already knows the answer before Nico tells him.

“It was Castellan. It was all Castellan.”

“He did this to you?” Jason asks, and there’s worry and anger there that Nico appreciates.

Nico nods. “He and Nakamura.”

“Nakamura?”

Nico nods again, even though his headache is coming back with a vengeance. “Yeah, I think he's some kind of ninja.”

“A ninja.” Jason says faintly in shock.

“I think.”

“What are you doing, Nico? You're a lawyer. You're supposed to be helping people.” Jason exclaims. But Nico knows that somewhere in Jason he knows that Nico is, or they wouldn’t still be here.

“I am.”

“In a mask! Do you know what they call that? A vigilante. Someone who acts outside of the law.” Jason says, his fists clenched.

Just before they could the automated voice on Nico’s phone began to ring. “Hazel. Hazel. Hazel.”

Nic feels momentarily bad for the fact that he hasn’t said anything to Hazel, about how they’re related, or about how he’s Daredevil. But he remembers Bianca, and he knows that keeping this from her is for the best.

He hears Jason going over to his phone and he’s gripped with panic. “Jason. Jason-”

Jason turns to Nico and after all these years of never seeing his face makes Nico perfectly in tuned with every other part of him. He wants to tell Hazel, wants to tell the truth like Nico never could.

“She deserves to know.” Jason says firmly.

Nico thinks of Bianca again.

“You can't tell her, Jason, please.” He pleads for the first time in his life.

“Is this what you do? When we call, trying to get you to come out for drinks? Trying to find you when bombs are going off and we're worried?” Jason hits the ignore button and he’s never felt as vile as he does now, sitting here and debating whether or not to throw his best friend into jail, “You just hit ignore?”

“Hazel. Hazel. Hazel.” The automated voice says once more.

Jason looks down. “It's her again.”

“Please, Jason.” Nico begs.

Somewhere inside Jason he wants to feel the sick feeling of vindication and tell Hazel, tell her what he put together from files left on Nico’s desk, how she’s related to him, how he’s going out every night and letting every two-bit criminal from here to the Hudson carve a piece out of his body and take it for themselves.

“Please, Jason.” Nico pleads again.

Jason already knows what he’s going to do.

“Hey.” He tries to sound okay, even though everything is shattering at their feet.

“Hey. I tried calling Nico. Where are you guys?” She asks lightly.

“We're at his place.” Jason says carefully, listening at Nico takes in a breath of anxiety.

“Is everything okay?”

“No, Nico was-” he turns to Nico and even if he did lie about the most important part of their friendship, he looks beaten down, tired, so low he can’t take another punch, and Jason knows he loves Nico too much to deliver the last hit, “Nico was in an accident.”

“Oh, my God,” Hazel exclaims, “What happened?”

“He was in a car accident.” He lies, and something in him begins to twist in hurt as he hears Nico let out a sigh.

“Nico was driving?” Hazel asks skeptically.

“No, he, um- He got hit.”

“Well, is he all right? Look, I'm coming over.” She says quickly and Jason shakes his head to no one in particular.

“No, stay at the office. We need you there. There's nothing you can do here.” Because there isn’t.

“Okay. Jason-”

“I got this, Hazel,” he says harshly, and then lets out a sigh, because this isn’t who he is, “I'll call you if we need anything.”

He hangs up before she can respond and Jason feels something drop in the pit of his stomach that Hazel’s brother is sitting right across from him and he won’t tell her, he’ll die and Hazel won’t know that he was her brother and he was sacrificing himself to the city.

“Thank you.” Nico says quietly.

“Thank me? For what? I just lied to somebody that I care about. I want to know everything. And don't you leave a damn thing out.”

 

Nico does. He tells Jason about Bianca, in depth this time, and about how one day he just went out, and how his mentor, Stick, had trained him when he went to the orphanage after Bianca died.  He tells Jason about the things hidden under the box of Bianca’s belongings he keeps in his singular closet. He doesn’t tell Jason about the devil. He doesn’t think that will go over too well.

“Where did you get all of this?” Jason asks when Nico tells him about the gear in a secret compartment in Bianca’s box and he goes over to verify.

“The Internet.” Nico says simply, because of all the overcomplications of this entire ordeal, how Nico got his shitty costume is not all too complicated to understand.

“The Internet.” Jason says back.

He thumbs over the things in the box and he wonders, not for the first time, how long it would have taken Nico to tell him the truth if he hadn’t stumbled across Nico bleeding on his floor one day.

“Thought you long-underwear types stitched these together yourselves.” He says instead, because it’s easier to keep this slightly light hearted, because the moment Jason gets too serious he’s afraid what he had come here to say will slip it. And it can’t, not after all of this, he’s not ready. Even after years of trying to convince myself he was, and finally being ready, he’s no longer ready.

“I never learned how to sew.” Nico says.

“But you learned how to fight. That news footage of you in the alley, after the bombings the way you were flipping around. Your sister was a boxer. She didn't teach you any of that stuff, did she?” Jason asks.

 _Use your head, not your fists,_ she had said, and fat lot of good that had done him now.

Nico shakes his head. “She didn't want me to fight. You know that.”

“So, how'd you get so good at it?”

“An old man named Stick.” Nico says softly, remembering how his mentor had trained him to be a soldier and the moment Nico had gotten too close he’d left and he taught Nico the very important lesson of keeping people away to protect them, to making fighting easier when you had no one who could get hurt because of it.

“You're shitting me.” Jason snorts.

“He found me at the orphanage. Blind like me. Well, almost like me.” Stick was stronger, faster, sharper, _better_.

“A blind old man taught you the ancient ways of martial arts. Isn't that the plot to Kung Fu?” Jason asks.

“I know how it sounds.” Nico says cautiously.

Jason shakes his head. “I don't think that you do.”

Nico continues. “He did more than start my training. He taught me that my blindness wasn't a disability, that sight was a distraction. He helped me understand everything I could do.”

Despite the fact that Stick was in fact a terrible person, Nico admires the lessons he learned, except for the single lesson that ties to people should be avoided to protect them. He obviously missed that memo when he fell in love with Jason.

“Define ‘everything.’.”

“It's hard to explain, Jason. My abilities I just know things, okay?”

Jason can’t imagine anything that is as far from okay as this entire situation. “No, not okay. Can you read my mind? Can you predict the future? What? What things do you just know?”

Nico tunes into Jason like he’s learned to do for years. I know you haven't showered since yesterday morning. But you rinsed your face in my kitchen sink. I know you had onions in your lunch two days ago. I know you're hungry and tired. And I know the more I say, the faster your heart beats.” _I know you used to love me_ , Nico thinks but won’t say, _do you still love me now?_

“You can hear a heartbeat? From across the room?”

“Helps to anticipate behavior. When someone's gonna attack when they're lying.” Nico explains.

“That's how you knew Hazel was telling the truth- when we first met her at the precinct.”

Nico nods. “Yeah.”

“You listened to her heartbeat without her permission? We're lawyers! You can't do that! There's a system in place, and it's weird and invasive and- Wait,” a feeling of panic and dread suddenly seize Jason, “Are you telling me that since I've known you, any time I wasn't telling the truth, you knew?” He thinks of how he’s been in love with Nico the moment Nico walked into that little dorm room with nothing but a duffel bag and a need to be loved, “and what, you just played along?”

Nico feels his bones beginning to grow tired. “Basically.”

Jason thinks about all the times he almost kissed Nico, and all the times he’s stayed up late wondering if he’d gotten home okay. He thinks about that single night, the night they shared their future and even if Jason’s parents had never accepted him, at least he had Thalia and Reyna and Nico too. Nico, who Jason loved even when Nico tried to say he didn’t need a friend. Nico who stayed up late and sometimes looked so sad and beaten down and Jason knew he was thinking about Bianca, and Jason wants to wrap him in the warmth of his support.

But this is also the Nico who is blind and fights criminals and goes out every night, letting Jason worry about him. This is the Nico who lied to Jason since the day they met.

“Was anything ever real with us?” He asks Nico, because right now everything is shattering and breaking and he needs honesty.

They get a call and it’s from Percy, saying that one of the crime syndicate’s main suppliers is dead.

Jason hangs up once they’re done and turns to Nico. “Did you do that?”

“I told him to turn himself in.” Nico says.

“I can't hear your heartbeat. Are you telling me the truth?” Jason asks.

“I didn't kill him, Jason. It's Luke Castellan, covering his ass.”

So, you've never-” Jason hates how he questions whether nor not Nico is a killer, because the man Jason fell in love with was not a killer, but Jason also fell in love with someone he believed would never lie to him, “You've never gone that far?”

Nico is relieved that he can answer this question and not feel guilty.

“No. But I wanted to after everything Fisk had done, I  went to a warehouse I thought he'd be at. I went to kill him.” Nico tells him honestly.

“It's not enough playing judge and jury? You gotta add executioner to the list?” Jason asks, and he’s pained, he thinks about Nico, the Nico sitting across from him, who loves Italian food made like his sister’s and how he laughs when Jason makes a pun about blindness because he wants people to know it’s not a weakness. He thinks about how he couldn’t ever handle it if Nico decided to put blood on his hands instead of using the Justice System they both swore to abide by.

“I didn't think I had a choice.” Nico knows he doesn’t. The city had chosen for him when he was nine and now he has to live with that.

“What happened to all that talk about going after him through the system? Making the law work for us?” When Hazel and Jason had begun digging and Jason insisted they get cops involved, Nico had told them that the law had to be enough.

“Sometimes the law isn't enough.” Nico says softly, and his bruises and cuts are proof of that.

There’s a long silence. Nico can’t tell if it’s been a minute or an hour, but it drags.

“You want to say something.” Nico finally says.

“Really don't.” Jason says firmly, his voice still riddled with hurt.

“Your breathing changes when you're about to.” Nico supports.

“Now you're just showing off.”

“Say what you need to say.” Nico says simply.

Something in Jason snaps, maybe it’s that he’s hungry and tired and his knees feel worn from how his nervousness effects them, but he’s angry and tired and hurt and so many shades of upset he can’t begin to convey the way his heart hurts.

“You run around dressed like a self-sacrificing idiot, beating people up!” He snaps.

“It's not that simple and you know it.” Nico says softly as he tries to sit upright.

“No, I don't know shit! Not about this. I mean, how- Okay, so you get these whatever-you-call-thems when you're a kid. How do you go from that to what you're doing now?”

Nico thinks honestly about what caused this and he already knows. “When I was a kid, before the accident I'd lay awake at night listening to the sirens. I liked to put stories to them. Trying to figure out what they were for, ambulance or cops, robbery or fire. I don't know, just a stupid game. But after I lost my sight, after my abilities developed, I realized how many sirens there actually were how much this city suffered every single night.”

Nico thinks of his city, the city he’s loved since he was a child, and how for better or worse he’s dedicated his entire life to the city.

“You've been running around doing this since you were a kid?” Jason asks, shocked.

Nico shakes his head. “No. I tried not to fight to make my sister proud,” he thinks about how he’s failed her, “To to block it out. The sirens, the pain, the fear, all strangling Hell's Kitchen. For years, I buried my head and turned away. Then one night right after we quit Landman and Zack - I heard it.”

Nico feels bile rise in his throat at the memory.

“Heard what?” Jason asks.

Nico swallows the terrible feeling in his gut. “A little girl crying in her bed, in a building down the block. Her father liked to go to her room late at night when his wife was asleep.”

“Oh, Jesus.” Jason says, because he can’t imagine that happening, but he knows how often it does.

“I called Child Services like you're supposed to. But the mom, she wouldn't believe it. Said it wasn't true. And the dad, he was smart. He made sure what he did, how he did it, didn't leave a mark. The law couldn't do anything to help that little girl.” Nico thinks of all the little girls and girls like Bianca that this city swallowed whole and spat back out.

“But I could.” He says, because he knows that even if Jason is hurt and angry and might never speak to him again, Nico did the right thing.

He continues. “I knew his routine. Waited till he was alone. I beat him, I beat him until he was unconscious. He spent the next month in a hospital, eating through a straw. And I never slept better.”

“You say all this, like one day you'd just had it with how things are. But to do what you do you had to keep training, all those years since that Stick guy, knowing you would do something like this. Maybe it isn't only about justice, Nico. Maybe it's about you having an excuse to hit someone. Maybe you just can't stop yourself.” Jason says, and he knows it’s true, knows that somewhere in Nico there had always been this need to curl his fists and fight. He knows that it's one of the reasons he fell in love with Nico. 

“I don't want to stop.” Nico says, thinking about the Devil who curls around his red vision when he’s out there fighting to make his city better.

“You're going to get yourself killed, you keep this up. You know that, right?” The thought of Nico dying makes Jason shiver and fear that this won’t end, won’t stop shattering, that this is just the beginning and Nico will continue to go out and hurt himself and Jason will be left alone, with no one but his sister and the grave of his best friend.

“I can take care of myself.” Nico says automatically.

“What about the rest of us? Me, Hazel, we're a part of this now, because of you. And we didn't get a say in that. And now it makes sense that you never told her you were related.”

Nico flounders. “How did you-”

Jason shrugs. “I read the files you had. But you keeping it from her won’t do anything. The only thing you can do it protect her.”

Nico knows what Jason means. He wants him to protect her by ending this, stopping this.

“What do you think's gonna happen if I give up now, Jason? Who's going to stop Castellan?”

“The law.” Jason says firmly.

Nico thinks of his sister’s blood, her lifeless face he’s grateful he couldn’t see. “Tell that to Bianca.”

Nico is trying so hard to make the argument for Jason to understand. “ Is something like that happened to Thalia… If you could have put on a mask and prevented what happened to her, you’re telling me you wouldn't have?”

“It's not fair, Jason.” But Jason knows he would have.

“We don't live in a world that's fair. We live in this one. And I'm doing everything I can to make it a better place.” Nico says, because he knows he’s doing good.

“‘A better place.’ That kind of sounds like what Castellan keeps saying.” And Nico’s stomach drops.

“Don't say that. Don't twist it around.” He’s feeling his own heart begin to beat faster in anxiety and hurt.

Jason’s heart is beating faster, from hurt and anger. “You tried to kill him, Nico. You told me yourself. How is that any different than the way he solves his problems?”

Nico feels himself begin to shake. “I made a mistake. I know that.”

“Misspelling ‘Hanukkah’ is a mistake. Attempted murder is a little something else. You ever stop to think what would happen if you went to jail? Or worse? You really think that anyone would believe that I didn't know what you were doing? That Hazel didn't know?”

At his words Nico begins to feel tears spilling out of his eyes even though he wants to will them away. His heart breaks and he can’t ask Jason to put it together, because their world is falling apart and Nico isn’t sure how to fix this.

“This city needs me in that mask, Jason.”

Suddenly it dawns on Jason that no matter what he could do, no matter if he kissed him enough times, hugged him enough times, told him he loved him enough, the city would always matter more to Nico than anything else.

“Maybe you're right. Maybe it does. But I don't. I only ever needed my friend.” Jason says, and he watches Nico’s tears spill over and he hates how they’re both hurting. But he can’t fix this, can’t even begin to know where to start with this.

“I wouldn't have kept this from you, Nico. Not from you.” _I only have one secret,_ Jason thinks, _but I never would have kept this from you._

“You don't know that.” Nico shakes his head.

“Yeah, I do.” Jason says, and he’s walking away, going to leave.

“Jason.” Nico calls. And Jason wants so badly to turn around and kiss every one of Nico’s scars until he feels whole again, but Jason’s whole world has just crashed and he can’t.

“Jason, wait.” Nico says, but can’t move because of all his injuries. Jason slams the door and leans on it for a moment. He pushes off it, walks home quickly, and once he’s slammed the door to his own apartment closed he sinks to the floor, his knees finally giving out under him, and he cries. He cries for a long time.

 

“This might hurt.” Reyna says. She’s begun to redress his wounds, coming the day after Jason was there. Nico doesn’t say anything and Reyna looks at him carefully.

“You okay?” She asks quietly.

“You talking about the stitches?” He asks.

“Mostly. How'd you open this up again?” She asks.

“I just wanted to see how much I could move.” He says, instead of the real reason, which is that he needed to feel something other than the painful ache of Jason’s words.

Reyna sighs. “You really shouldn't be moving at all.”

“I know.” He says quietly.

“You really need to rest. Let yourself heal.” She said firmly.

“I meditate for that.”

“You meditate?” Reyna asks skeptically.

Nico nods. “I learned when I was a kid. Helps with the pain and healing faster.”

“Is that why you're still alive?”

Nico smirks bitterly. “Or I'm just a contrary son of a bitch.”

Reyna sighs. “Either way, you really need to ease up, or I'll be stitching a corpse next time around. You really should get some kind of body armor, like I told you.”

“Yeah, I'm thinking you might be right.” He agrees.

Reyna rolls her eyes. “There's a first.”

“When Castellan came at me in the warehouse, I sliced his jacket open.” Nico explains.

“You cut him?” Reyna asks.

Nico shakes his head. “No he was wearing some kind of armor in the lining. It was, uh light and tough. Like nothing I've ever come across before.”

Reyna sighs. “That's what you get when you have all the money in the world.”

She finishes and lingers in Nico’s apartment. “I have to get going. I need to pack.”

“Pack?”

Reyna nods. “Yeah. Taking some time off to get out of the city for a while.”

“How much time?”

“Why? You gonna miss me?” She asks cautiously.

He doesn’t answer her question but they know what they are, friends who want to be closer, see each other more often, but Nico would never do that, would never get close to Reyna like that if it meant someone might find out she knows his alter ego. He knows the risks of his work and he knows that he won’t do that to her. She good, in a lot of ways she better than he could ever imagine to be, and he needs her to be safe.

“I didn't think I was ever gonna see you again not alive. Not after that last call the night half the city blew up.” She says, and Nico knows something in her can’t help that feeling of trepidation that she’ll love him like a brother and he’ll die.

Nico can’t commit to her because he knows that if something happens he can’t risk them coming after her. She can hold her own, but there are people out there who won’t care how strong she is. The city will eat her alive like it did to Bianca all those years ago.

“I left you a message when when it was over.” He says softly.

“Yeah, you left a message.” She says, sounding wary, and slightly hurt.

What'd you expect, Reyna? You made it pretty clear you didn't want to be a part of whatever this was.” He says, because in a lot of ways this hurts him too.

“You know what it was - what it could've been.” She says, and they do. They both know that maybe in another life she could love him like Bianca did, not filling the hole, but makes space for herself in Nico’s heart, loving him and protect him like only a big sister can. But this isn’t another life, it’s this one, and these are the cards being dealt.

“If I stopped.” He says.

“I'm not looking to go around in circles, Nico. I know you're not going to stop.” She doesn’t sound hurt, just a bit wistful.

“Not until this city is safe from people like Luke Castellan.”

“Which is never,” she interjects, “It'll always be something, someone you know that, right?”

She sighs and Nico wishes that he could feel sorry for constantly disappointing the people in his life, but he has to do this, for Hazel and Bianca and Reyna and Jason and all their families.

“You told me you were the man this city needs. I think that was only half true. I think you're also the man this city created for better or worse.” She sounds proud of him in a sense, but her tone is sad, like she wishes that it hadn’t been Nico who the city had chosen to turn into the devil.

“I'm sorry you got pulled into this.” He says, because he is. He wishes they could be closer.

“I’m not, Nico,” she says softly, “I’m only sorry you’re not letting one save you while you go out and save the city.”

Nico thinks of Jason and how he’d always thought that when he went out and he fought, thoughts of Jason pulled him back to place of mercy, and kindness. No one needs to save him yet, but he knows that with this waged war, soon he will.

“Thank you, Reyna. I know I keep saying it, and it probably doesn't mean anything at this point, but thank you.”

She sighs and gives him a hug, and he hopes that this means when everything is settled, maybe she can find a way to let him find a way to be closer to her.

She pulls away and walks to his door. “I'll always be there when you really need me. To patch you up, to talk, but anything beyond that, you’ll need to come to me when you’re ready.”

He nods.

She pauses, her hand on the door and she turns to him. “You know, the only thing I remember from Sunday school is the martyrs the saints, the saviors- they all end up the same way. Bloody and alone.”

“I never said I was any of those.”

Her heart breaks for him, he can hear it. “You didn't have to.”

 

Jason meets with Drew Tanaka at Josie’s bar.

The thing every must understand is that Jason only ever knew Drew because they had a . . . friends with benefits thing going on. Well, if you even wanted to call it that, it was more like enemies with benefits, seeing as how Jason thinks of her as a harpy from hell. But right now he needs help, and she’s all he has and he needs to prove to Nico that there are ways to take people down using the law.

“Hey, sorry. Couldn't flag a cab.”

Drew casts a judging look at Josie, the bulking woman who owns the bar. “You know that buffalo wouldn't make me a vodka martini? I had to settle for just vodka.”

Jason turns and nods. “Oh, yeah, she can be, um- You gotta ask nice.”

Drew rolls her eyes. “I pay nice. That should be enough.”

Jason sighs. “You want a martini? I'll get you a martini.”

Drew makes a look of disgust. “What I want is to not be in this petri dish a second longer than I have to. Why are we meeting here?”

Jason sighs, knowing that what he’s about to say will cost him a lifetime of favors. “I need your help.”

“My help?” She asks, disbelieving.

“Yeah.”

She sighs. “That's disappointing, I thought this was a booty call.”

“You remember the tenement case, that I came to Landman and Zack about? Yeah, Mrs. Cardenas.”

She was their last client, a client who was unfortunately killed. Jason lets out a breath of relief. “Thought you were gonna say ‘Carnitas’ again.”

Drew leans in and quiets her voice. “I'm not a complete asshole. I heard about what happened to her.”

Jason nods. “Yeah, but that's only half the story. Her tenement was just one building that was targeted. There's dozens of others across Hell's Kitchen, maybe hundreds.”

Drew is still leaned in and she looks interested, which Jason knows will help him. He needs her attention.

“Targeted by who?” She asks.

“Luke Castellan.” Jason whispers.

Drew immediately widens her eyes and begins to prepare to leave. “Okay, I gotta go.”

“Wait, just wait a second.” Jason pleads.

“Landman and Zack, you know, the guys I work for, represent Castellan. I can't talk to you about this.”

Jason stops her. “Then don't talk, just read. Five minutes, please.”

He pushes files in front of her, and he knows she may be a harpy from hell, but she’s clever, coniving, and scheming, and she’s never backed down from any challenge since Jason’s known her.

She sighs and sits down. “Five minutes.”

She takes her time reading the files, which takes her more than an hour. When she finally finishes reading them she looks at him.

“That was longer than five minutes.” He says.

“Where did you get all this?” She asks, carefully.

Jason shrugs. “Some of it Nico and I turned up working the tenement case. And the rest of it?” he lets out a forlorn sigh, “The Devil of Hell's Kitchen.”

“You're working with that prick that blew up half the city?” She says as though it’s a scandal.

And even though Jason is still hurt and he feels betrayed down to his bones, he feels the need to protect Nico, to protect him from the way Luke Castellan is trying to ruin him. “You read what's in there. He didn't do it. It was your client.”

Drew scoffs. “My client has been all over the news trying to help this city.”

“So, there's nothing that's been going on at Landman and Zack? Nothing that doesn't feel right with Castellan?”

Drew shakes her head. “Castellan is one of our most billable clients, along with Owlsley at Silver and Brent. You know, I could lose my job just sitting here. Maybe even get disbarred.”

“You didn't answer the question.” Jason presses.

“Remember what I said when I came in into Landman and Zack to discuss Cardenas’s case?” He is trying to appeal to her, he didn’t go to law school just to be shut down after a few hours, “About how you used to have a soul?”

Drew scoffs, and he knows she’s remembering how insulted she felt when he told her that.

“That wasn't just a jab, Drew. I remember how much you cared. About the law, about what was right. Before the clothes and the expense account, and scrambling to make partner.”

She gives him a look, but he can tell she was wavering. “You're asking me to commit career suicide.”

“I'm asking you to trust me. One way or another, Castellan, Owlsley, anyone connected with what they've been doing, they're gonna get what's coming to them. And there are gonna be some hard questions about how much Landman and Zack knew and when they knew it. This is your chance to get out in front of that and take your soul back.” He says passionately, trying with all his might to get her, of all people, to do the right thing.

She sighs, but she picks up the file and Jason knows that somehow, he’s going to win this. He has to.

He’ll tell himself it’s because he wants that bastard Luke Castellan behind bars, but really it’s because he can’t stand the way the news constantly tells people that Nico is ruining the city, somewhere deep inside Jason he knows that Nico is trying to save the city.

Or die trying.

 

Hazel moved to New York City when she was twenty-three because her friends asked her to. Also, because she figured out that she had a brother.

Nico comes into her life and he protects her, and she protects him, in her own ways.

But she can’t anymore.

She’d been working with Silena Beauregard at The Bulletin. She was a reporter, dedicated to news and uncovering the truth behind everything. She was weary though, old and cautious. She had a husband. Charles Beckendorf, who had alzheimers. She was trying to release the story on Luke Castellan to finally get pain so she could take care of her husband. Hazel helped her. She wanted to destroy Luke Castellan, finally take him down once and for all.

She dug so deep and so hard that she was even able to go with Silena to the nursing home upstate where May Castellan was being taken care of.

She hadn’t expected that Luke’s assistant would figure out she was there.

He took her, held her in a room, and Hazel wasn’t tied down or forced to be there.

“Do you love this city?” His assistant asked.

Hazel furrowed her eyebrows.

The man shrugged. “What? It's a simple question. Do you love this city?”

“I haven't been here long enough.” She said in a firm voice, even though she could feel herself shaking with unknown fears.

The man gave her a look. “Huh.I find a few days, a week at most, is ample time to form an emotional response. Growing to love something is really simply forgetting slowly what you dislike about it. I'll be perfectly honest, the situation calls for it, I do not love this city. The crush of the unwashed garbage stacked on the sidewalk, the air that seems to adhere to your skin, the layer of filth you can never completely wash away.”

Hazel though about Nico, who she knew loved this city more than anything or anyone. “Maybe you should move.”

The man laughs. “I'm not here because I want to be. I'm here because I'm needed.”

“By Luke Castellan?” She asks, because she needs to know.

The man nods. “He loves this city. In a way you and I never could. I don't expect you to understand that. There are moments when even I struggle to, but he does very deeply. Almost, I suspect, as much as he loves his mother.”

The man pauses, trying to gauge if there’s a reaction from Hazel, and she tries to remain still and objective. She’s scared, but she’d been scared plenty of times in her life before. She won’t back down from letting everyone know the truth just because she’s scared. She wants everyone to know who Luke Castellan is and what he’s done.

The man continues. “Frankly, I was surprised she remembered you. Recent memories for her are fleeting gossamer often plucked from grasp by the slightest breeze. But you, you left an impression. The nice brunette lady with the big golden eyes. And the woman you were with, Mrs. Beckendorf, I'm guessing.”

His phone rings and she looks down to find him texting. “My employer Sorry, old habits. Mr. Castellan as I said, loves his mother. He would be extremely disturbed if he knew you'd found her. Even more so that you've been to see her.”

She gives him a look of speculation. “You haven't told him?”

The man nods. “He's preoccupied with more important matters, so I've taken it upon myself to address the situation.”

“If you're going to kill me just do it. I'm sick of listening to your bullshit.” She says, because she knows she has to be fearless. She’ll have to do this so that others can find the truth.

The man laughs. “I'm not here to kill you, Miss Levesque. I'm here to offer you a job. You've proven yourself resourceful, tenacious, with a commendable ability to convince others that your way is the right one, the way that needs to be followed, pursued despite the obvious repercussions such actions may incur.”

“Is that even English?” She bites, because she’s learned how to be a sarcastic asshole from Nico.

The man deadpans. “Ha. simply stated you're going to convince Mrs. Beckendorf that everything is fine that you were wrong, that Luke Castellan is a good man, a man this city needs. And then you're going to spread the gospel to everyone you've infected with your negative point of view.

“I'd rather die first.” She spits at him.

The man folds his hands over the table. “But you won't be the first to die, Miss Levesque, no. No, I think Mrs. Beckendorf will have that honor. Then we'll go to your place of employment, see to Mr. Grace, Mr. di Angelo. After that, your friends, family, everyone you've ever cared about. And when you have no tears left to shed, then then we'll come for you, Miss Levesque.”

Her breathing is coming more rapidly, and she’s worried she’ll start crying, but she can’t. She rushes to take the gun sitting at the middle of the table and points it at the man.

The man laughs. “Do you really think I would put a loaded gun on the table where you could reach it?”

“I don't know,” she cocks the gun, “Do you really think this is the first time I've shot someone?”

And he moves forward, but Hazel is so worried, so scared and shaken and her breathing is ragged and she shoots him, twice in the chest. She looks at him, his lifeless body and she looks down at her hands, hands that have killed someone.

She quickly gets up, putting the gun her bag which is off to the side somewhere, and she runs. She runs as fast as she can and she goes home to wash the filth from her skin.

It won’t come off, Hazel can’t get the image of that dead man out of her head.

 

Jason and Nico stop coming to work together, and even after everything she’s done, Hazel can’t take it. She can’t take the numbing silences and everything that’s seeming to fall down around her. She knows something happened between Jason and Nico, but they don’t talk about. They just move like ghosts through the office while she comes in at the crack of dawn and leaves well past midnight, scared to be alone with the dream she’s had of how she kills the man over and over.

Nico comes in at four thirty on a Wednesday.

“What are you doing here so late? Or early, I guess?” She asks softly.

Nico seems distracted, but he answers her equally soft. “Um, couldn't sleep.”

“Lot of that going around. Seems like it's the only thing we still all have in common.” She says bitterly, because she’s so tired of her brother avoid whatever it is that’s hurting him. And she just wants things to be like they were, so that while her life is falling apart, she can have something to hold on to.

“I'm sorry, Hazel.” He says, and he is. Because everything that’s happened is his fault. He’s gone and tried to save his city and everything in his life is falling apart because of it.

He doesn’t know what happened but for the last few weeks Hazel’s voice sounds off, more sad, more hurt, more anxious, more tired. Nico wonders what’s happened and then he feels bad that he hasn’t been around enough to noticed when it changed.

“For which part?” She asks, not because she wants to make him feel guilty, but because she wants to know why he’s so guilty when he’s done nothing at all.

“All of it, pretty much.” He says, because he knows it is, even if Hazel doesn’t.

“You want coffee?” She asks.

He nods. “Yeah, please.”

She walks over to the kitchenette and while she’s doing that he notices something different about the trash, there’s a bronze smell come from it and he bends over and runs his hands along the sign. The sign they’d ordered for their firm so many months ago that they had finally paid off. It seems like a lifetime ago when Nico and Jason decided to leave behind that world to live in this one, the one where everything hurts and everyone is so sad and heroes don’t end up with happy endings, but if they can get lucky they end up with an okay life. No one told Nico that being a hero meant you were going to have to pay for it every step of the way. But he knows that he’d do that anyway, so he supposes nothing’s really changed.

Nico is absentmindedly running his fingers along the sign when Hazel walks back into the office with her cup. “You know, he thinks he got her killed- Elena Cardenas.”

“He didn't.” Nico said quickly. Because he knows that Jason could never do that, would never do that.

Hazel sighed. “You want to try telling him that? Oh, right, that that would be if you two were still speaking to each other.”

Her biting tone isn’t harsh, but it is put out. She frustrated, and Nico could understand why.

Hazel knows they love each other, she sees it when they stare at one another. But something happened between them and while they love each other and they’re fighting, she knows they can’t continue to avoid each other.

“It's his choice.” Nico says contritely.

“Only if you let it be.” She says.

And then she voices what she’s thinking, because it’s the first time she’s thought it, but it hurts, and she needs her brother to know it, needs someone to know what’s hurting her.

“You know, I'm starting to feel like I made a mistake coming to work here.”

“Do you want to leave?” Nico asks, and as much as he’d like to keep her here with him, careful and protected, if she wanted to leave he wouldn’t stop her.

She shakes her head. “No. This is my home. You and Jason, you're the only good things in my life right now.”

Her voice cracks and she remembers everything she’s done and she can’t hold back the tears welling in her eyes.

“Hazel, did something happen?” Nico asks worriedly, when he smells the salt of her tears.

“Yes. The world fell apart,” she says softly, sadly, “Didn't you notice?”

 

Neither of them see Jason when Nico comes into work the next day.

Nico goes to open the door but finds that the door to the office is locked. He doesn’t have his spare key and he’s worried now. Worried that Hazel hasn’t been the same and he wasn’t able to protect her from whatever she’s scared of. So now she locks doors, and cries nearly every day, and whatever happened has shaken her down to the core.

“Hazel? Hazel? You in there?” He calls.

“Yeah, just a minute. I'm sorry.” She says, when she answers the door.

“We, uh, locking this now?” He asks.

“Seems like a good idea.” She says simply.

Nico feels for his desk, keeping up his pretense of blindness at work. “Yeah It's, uh, late. You should go home.”

And it is late, it’s seven in the evening and Nico’s only there to do some work before he goes out and does what he has to do.

“Nico?” Hazel calls him softly, “Is this what we are now? Three people who don't even talk to each other?”

Nico thinks of what to say to her, and he can only think of one thing. “I know this guy We were close once. He told me if I, uh, I'd have to push the people that I care about away if I wanted to be effective at what I do.”

Sticks words still sting, but less now that he has actually people he wants to protect. They don’t hinder him, they motivate him.

Hazel thinks of Nico when she first met him and how he was already so closed off, barely giving her information about himself until she pushed. And then everything happened with Jason and he shut like a clam all over again. She tried not to take it personally, but it hurt more than anything else had.

“Seems like you listened.” She says.

“Yeah. I thought I didn't. This guy, he has a way of, uh getting in your head, you know?” He thinks of Stick being an asshole and Jason crying as he runs out of Nico’s house and of his own scars and Bianca who gave up everything she had, even her own life, just to to give him a good life and he’d thrown all of it away.

He begins to feel himself shake, the onslaught of the weariness in his muscles and the pain in his heart and the neverending feeling of loneliness because he has to push everyone he loves away to keep them from getting hurt.

“And here's the thing, I had a really shitty night. The kind where you think you've seen the bottom of humanity, and the pit just keeps getting deeper, you know?” His voice cracks, but he doesn’t care. He’s so tired of hiding everything that’s hurting him.

“I can't- I can't do this alone. I can't- I can't take another step.” He thinks of all the stumbling around he seems to be doing, how he keeps messing up and messing up, and he knows that Bianca navigated her life without ever stumbling or needing help and he feels weak. He begins to cry, because he’s right, he has had a shitty night, and no amount of punching bad guys will ever help the fact that he’ll never be able to be close to Reyna and Hazel the way he wishes he could be.

Hazel looks at him, hunched over, his body racked with pained sobs and she takes him in her arms, holding him tight, and he sobs even more. He shakes and his vulnerability is her own, and she knows that even though she’s having nightmares, and she’s broken, so is her brother. And maybe, just maybe, they can find a way to heal.

“You're not alone, Nico. You never were.”

 

Silena Beauregard is killed.

She dies writing that story for Hazel and Luke Castellan gets wind that she visited May and he kills her, because he knows she knows too much.

Hazel finds out, and she feels terrible that Silena died because of Luke.

She goes to the funeral where Charles looks at her casket sadly and even Nico, who goes with her, wishes that they had more time. But it fuels him, even more. Now he’s more determined to end things with Castellan.

They head to the office and as they begin to buckle down Hazel sighs. “Do you know what makes this worse? Jason. Didn't even bother to show up.”

“You said he left a message.” Nico says, still trying to defend Jason even if he hasn’t seen him in two weeks.

“Yeah, he left a message saying he had something more important to do than come to Silena's funeral.”

“He wouldn't say that.” Nico scoffs.

Hazel grumbles. “Yeah, well, it's what he meant.”

Nico sighs. “It's my fault, Hazel, all of this with Jason.”

Hazel shakes her head. “No, everyone shares the blame in a relationship. That's just the way that it works.”

“No, not always,” Nico says, “Why don't you go home, get some rest, huh?”

Hazel sighs. “I can't. Every time I close my eyes, I see What if he finds out that I-” _that I killed his assistant,_ “That I was with Silena at Saint Benezet. What if he finds out that I spoke to his mother too?”

“If that happens, we will deal with it.” _I’ll deal with it,_ he thinks.

“How? I mean, the news barely mentioned what happened to Silena because Luke pays off the media. And the police haven't arrested anyone for it because Luke pays them off, too. Jason was right. How do you stop someone like that, someone who has so much? He's gonna find out what I did. He's going to find out, and he's gonna come after me just like he came after Silena.” She sounds so hopeless and so scared, but Nico refuses to let the city take another sister away from him.

“No,” he tells her firmly, “It just means he has more to lose. I told you I would keep you safe, Hazel, when he came after you over Union Allied. That hasn't changed. Everyone that's taken money from him, everyone that's helped him tear this city apart they're all gonna get what's coming to them along with Luke Castellan.”

She breathes a little easier, because she can hear the passion in his voice, and she knows he’s telling the truth.

 

Nico is punching bags at Bianca’s old gym when he hears Jason come up behind him.

Nico pauses without turning around. “How'd you know I was here?”

Jason shrugs. “Known about your outlet for a while. I didn't say anything because I thought it had something to do with your dad. Now I know better.”

Nico begins to punch the punching bags again. He has nothing to say, well, he has one last thing to say, but he can’t, or he won’t. So instead he focuses his breathing, and pounds the punching bag harder and harder and harder until he’s out of breath and he has to pause.

“Thought you'd be out punching people in the head, or whatever you do.” Jason says.

“I was. I paid Silena's editor a visit.”

“Ellison?”

“Yeah,” Nico nods, “Hazel thinks he's working for Luke.”

“Did he talk?” Jason asks, because even if he hates this, maybe one day Nico’s method will be necessary no matter how much Jason hates it.

Nico continues to punch the bag. “No, never got close. Wife and kid picked him up outside the office. I’ll try it again tomorrow night.”

Nico hits harder, and faster, trying to find some way to make his fists connect with something so he has the satisfaction of finally doing something good.

“Looking like you have some anger issues. Wanna talk about it?” Jason asks, because maybe he misses Nico more than he hates him for keeping this from him.

Nico pauses. “You're not my priest, Jason, who you might have met if you'd shown up for Silena's funeral.”

Jason knows that Hazel’s upset, but he has a reason for missing it, and he knows that if he can do this to avoid any more funerals, he will.

“Hazel’s upset?” He asked.

Nico shrugged. “I told her this was my fault all of this between you and me.”

Jason nods, and then reflexively adds. “I just nodded. You could tell that, right?”

“Yeah, I could tell.”

“I was on my way to the service and I got a call from Drew.”

“From Drew?” Nico says it with disgust, because he knows Drew Tanaka. He’s also aware that she and Jason once had an arrangement and it certainly didn’t help that she knew how Nico felt about Jason. Nico continues to punch the bag again.

Jason nods. “She's been helping me copying files from Landman and Zack on the quiet. Whole stack of documents on their dealings with Luke Castellan, and Owlsley at Silver and Brent.”

Nico’s fist connects hard with the punch bag, Jason can tell he’s angry. “Silena is dead, Jason, because she got dragged into this. And now you're doing the same with your ex.”

“We're being careful.” Jason says.

“This has to stop. Luke has to- I have to stop this before there's no one left to bury.”

He worries that one day Luke will do exactly as he promised and take away everyone he loves. Including Jason. The thought that Luke could destroy Jason makes Nico sick to his stomach.

“Nico, last time you went after Luke, I found you half dead! More than half. You go after him in the mask again, he might kill you. Or you might kill him, which would probably have the same effect on someone as Catholic as you are.”

It’s meant as a snarky quip, but Nico’s just worried he won’t be able to stop Luke in time.

“What am I supposed to do? How do I stop him?”

“By using the law, Nico,” Jason explains softly, carefully, “Like you told me and Hazel to do. That's how we take him down.”

Nico hears what Jason says and clings to it. “We? Thought Grace and di Angelo were over.”

And he does, but he wants so badly to believe that once this is over with Luke he can try and have the things he never imagined he could, like his sister, and Reyna, and maybe, impossibly, Jason too.

Jason sighs. “There's nothing I want more than to find a way back to where we were, but,” _everything’s changed, except that I will always love you, even when you’ve messed up colossally bad it’s all I can see when I look at you_ , “I don't know if we can.”

Nico shakes his head, and that small sprout of hope blooms in his chest and Nico doesn’t want to stifle it down. “No, we can't. But maybe we can find a way to move forward, Jason.”

He gives Jason a tentative, tired smile.

He may have messed up, and he may beat up bad guys for a living. But Nico di Angelo, with the devil in his heart and blood on his hands, is the same man Jason fell in love with when he was eighteen.

 

In the end they get one crooked cop to confess to Luke Castellan’s bribery and it sets off a chain of events ending with Luke Castellan finally being arrested. Though that doesn’t last very long. He breaks out of the security truck they lock him in and he escapes.

Nico, Jason, and Hazel, all finally talking and working together, get him arrested, leave work and head out to the street to hail a cab when they find out he’s escaped.

“Let's get out of here before they close down the streets or something.” Hazel says, and flags down a cab.

“Get her home.” Nico commands.

“Okay.” Jason nods.

Nico begins to walk away before Jason pulls him back. “No, no, where are you going? We're not leaving you.”

Nico looks back to where he should be running. “Back to my place, make some calls, see what I can find out.”

“We'll drop you off.” Jason supplies.

Nico nods. “You live on the other side of town. I'll be all right.”

Jason pulls him off to the side and whispers. “You heard what's going on out there. You can't go up against that in your black pajamas.”

Nico nods, thinking of the man he found to make him armor. “I won't be.”

Jason looks at him worriedly, and Jason is worrying. He’s worried he’ll never see Nico again after this. “Nico-”

“I know I haven't earned it, not yet anyway, but I'm asking you to trust me, Jason. I know what I'm doing.”

Even with his world on fire Nico can’t look directly at Jason, but he gives him a confident look and it’s the most confident in anything that Nico’s ever been. And that steels Jason’s resolve for what he’s about to do.

“All right. Go be a hero. Just don't get killed doing it, okay? I’ll be at your apartment, waiting for you.” Jason says fondly, firmly. Nico wonders what would happen if he just ducked in and kissed Jason. Just once, in case he doesn’t come back and he’ll die with Jason’s lips imprinted into his mind.

But before he can give it too much thought Jason is kissing Nico within an inch of his life and hopping into the cab with Hazel.

“Be safe.” He calls, and they’re driving away.

Nico stands there for a moment, stalled, until his brain comes back online.

This gives him all the more reason to win this fight and come home.

 

Nico is on the rooftops listening when he hears it.

“Repeat, 15 minutes to the drop -” Nico stops the car when he leaps and hits the driver, knocking him out and causing the car to crash.

It’s turns over and Nico climbs to the top while he can hear Luke scrambling to get away, but not before turning to Nico.

Nico sneers at him, and he remembers how Luke once told him that there were heroes and villains and not everyone could get what they wanted. It was the night he bombed Hell’s Kitchen and Nico vowed he’d end this for Jason.

“You were right what you told me over the radio that night. Not everyone deserves a happy ending.”

Luke takes off to an alley and Nico follows him, vaulting across buildings to catch up with him. He corners Luke and they begin to fight.

Luke is heavier, bulkier, but Nico is smaller and more lean, able to move with much more dexterity. Luke moves like a wild animal, and Nico moves with purpose.

At one point Luke pins down Nico, punching him over and over again.

“I wanted to make this city something better than it is. Something beautiful. You took that away from me! You took everything! I'm gonna kill you!”

Nico struggles, but Luke is just brute strength and Nico manages to get free, he picks up two nearby pipes and hold them at his sides, prepared for the fight to end this once and for all. “Take your shot.”

Luke launches himself and they begin to fight, each other landing a hit, but neither of them willing to go down just yet, the entire city at stake in this moment.

Luke lands a devastating hit and Nico groans from the floor. Luke begins to beat him mercilessly, kicking and screaming and punching. “This city doesn't deserve a better tomorrow. It deserves to drown in its filth! It deserves people like my father! People like you!”

And Nico knows how to win this now. Because Reyna was right, this city made him, but Nico loves this city, loves the people in it and everything about it. Luke Castellan wants to burn this city alive, and he has nothing in him but pure rage. Nico knows that he has enough, but now it isn’t about rage, or the devil in Nico, it’s about who loves this city more.

He’s worn down, beaten so badly he’s not sure he’ll be able to get up.

But then he thinks of Bianca. Bianca who could take any hit, suffered so many losses, and still got up.

_Getting knocked down is all a part of life. It’s getting back up that counts._

And he does. He gives in to that last bit of the devil inside of him and he lets him loose to win this fight, to take back his city.

He lands blow after blow, Luke not knowing how he’s found the will to fight. But it works. And soon Nico has Luke Castellan on his knees.

He thinks of Jason, who he knows one day he will be able love in every way possibly, and how maybe Jason loving him back isn't as impossible as he once thought, he thinks of Reyna, who cares for him like a brother, and loves him no matter what he’s done. He thinks of Hazel, so hurt and scared, but strong and beautiful because she’s willed herself to keep pushing despite all odds that said she couldn’t. He thinks finally of Bianca, always thinking of Bianca, and how she gave her life to the city, to protect Nico. And the city made his who he was, who he was destined to be.

“This is my city, my family.”

Luke spits out blood onto the pavement of the alleyway. “You really think that this will change anything? You think one man in a silly little costume will will make a difference?”

Nico doesn’t humor him. He just hits him, hard enough that he’s conscious.

Before he can register anything else there’s a siren and a police car shining it’s headlights into the alley. “Police! Show me your hands! Do it!”

It’s Percy. "Show me your hands!”

Nico turns to face him and he’s only ever met Percy once while he was the man in the mask, and Percy had freaked out. “I told you before, Sergeant, I'm not the bad guy.”

Percy drops his gun to his side. “Holy shit, it's you.”

Nico points to Luke laying on the floor, knocked out. “This man was a fugitive from the law, and I stopped him. Are we good?”

Percy nods cautiously and then speaks into his walkie talkie. “Fifteen Sergeant Central. Be advised, Luke Castellan under K, north alley four-six and ten.”

The dispatcher’s static voice comes across the line. “Copy that.”

Nico sighs. “Thank you, Sergeant.”

Nico leaps up to where he can sense the fire escape, but before he can run away he hears Percy call to him.

“Hey, so what am I supposed to call you when I file my report?”

Nico smirks.

 

“Daredevil,” Hazel says, reading The Bulletin’s newest article, “That's what they're calling him now. The man in the mask.”

“Daredevil? Sounds like he's gonna jump Snake River Canyon on his rocket cycle.” Jason quips, giving Nico a meaningful look as he chuckles.

Nico laughs. “It kinda does, doesn't it?”

Hazel giggles. “Okay, okay. I thought it was a bit goofy at first, but it kinda grows on you. And it's better than the Devil of Hell's Kitchen anyway.”

Nico nods. “You’re not wrong there.

Hazel shakes her head in disbelief. “I cannot believe this is the same guy that stopped that Union Allied nut from stabbing me in my apartment. That is a serious upgrade.”

Jason lets out an exaggerated sigh. “I don't know, I think the horns are a bit much.”

Nico chuckles and Jason finishes whatever it is he’d doing.

“There! Done! What do you think?” He asks Hazel and Nico.

“I think I'm glad I fished it out of the trash.” Nico says softly, as he feels for the sign. He used to think that maybe he wanted to see Bianca’s face if he could ever get his sight back somehow, but after everything that’s happen he doesn’t. He feels the cool metal of the sign and wishes that he could see it, just once, to know that the dream he and Jason had finally came true.

“Me too,” Jason tells him fondly, giving him a soft kiss, “Grace and di Angelo, avocados at law.”

Hazel chuckles. “‘Avocados’?”

Jason laughs. “It's a long story. One that Nico and I will tell you once we go to dinner with Reyna. I just need to grab my things from upstairs.”

Jason goes up the stairs and Nico turns to Hazel.

“Hey, Hazel?”

“Yeah.” She answers.

Now that they both confessed about knowing they’re related, they’ve been more open with each other. Luke has been put away for three months and Nico is finally ready to let good things into his life.

He figures he’ll start with honesty. “There's been something in your voice. It's been there for a while now. I thought whatever it was, whatever's been I thought it would get better once Luke was put away, but it hasn't, has it?”

Hazel thinks about how she’s not longer scared of the dark streets of New York City and how she’s slowly learning to heal her private wounds, but she can never forget Silena, and all the other people who died because of Luke.

“We put him away, yeah but it won't bring back Elena Cardenas or Silena or erase what we've been through, or what we've had to do to get here.”

Nico nods sympathetically, knowing his scars still haven’t fully healed. “Yeah.”

Nico thinks of all the things he could have done over, to tell Jason about his secrets, all of them, and have help, rather than let himself get swallowed by his own bad decisions. “A lot of decisions I'd give anything to go back and change. But I can't. None of us can. It's like I told Jason, all we can do is move forward together.”

She nods and gives him a hug. “We’ll be okay.” She whispers.

Nico pulls away from her and looks over to find Jason smiling brightly at him and he slings his bag over his shoulder, gives Nico a kiss, and they all begin to walk to the restaurant where they’ll have dinner with Reyna and laugh and trade stories and Nico will finally be whole again. He takes Jason's arm, pulls out his cane, and he can hear the city, finally calm, finally resting, healing just like its vigilante hero.

They will be okay. He can feel it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I do it justice??? *wiggles my eyebrows at the pun*  
> Also, wow okay so this still counts for the prompt right????, like, I feel like it should??????


	40. If There's No one Beside You When Your Soul Embarks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haha this author hasn't written because my life was filled with ex-fiancee drama and then I was extremely demotivated, BUT Valentine's Day is coming up and being that this author loves Valentine's Day shit I thought I'd do a thing, just a snippet, but I hope you enjoy
> 
> Or, in which the author makes Nico suffer for fun and Jason loves Nico so much it makes the author cry

_**Prompt:** One quote- “I’m not losing you again.” _

 

* * *

 

It started on the first of February and really Jason should have seen it coming. 

It started on February first when Jason went to go look for Nico in his cabin. Usually when he went there now he nearly always found Nico asleep in his bed. He went to the cabin to find Nico’s bed was made, the entire cabin had barely any trace of him at all, except for a photo of Jason and Nico on the bedside table next to Nico’s bed. Jason thought nothing of it, as Nico was prompted to leave at times, and most often than not he had to leave without a good-bye. 

He left, assuming that perhaps Nico had just left like he always did, and would be back later. 

The next day Hazel called him at five in the morning on an Iris Message. 

“Jason!” She exclaimed.

He sat up quickly and wiped the sleep from his eyes. “Hazel? Why are you calling me?”

Hazel’s eyes shifted nervously. “Nico just came by.”

Jason’s eyes brightened. “Really? Is he okay?”

Hazel frowned, her eyes stormy. “Not exactly. . .”

Jason sat up and leaned forward. “What happened, Hazel?”

She looked as though she’d begun to panic, she started to cry. “We were on a mission. Our father asked to do it, to save a group of demigods making their way to Camp Jupiter-”

Jason’s heart stopped. 

“What happened, Hazel?” He said more firmly, trying to get her to focus. She seemed to remember his voice, that voice of Roman authority. 

She kept crying and shaking her head. “We didn’t know that the girl couldn’t travel through the shadows. We didn’t know. We didn’t know.”

She kept saying it over again and Jason suddenly understood.

A girl had died. She’d died because none of them knew she couldn’t handle the darkness of the shadows. 

“Hazel, what happened, exactly?”

Hazel’s eyes were frantic and sad as though she was a trapped animal. “We-we were supposed to meet a group of demigods on Pier 39. That’s what our father told us, but then there were these monsters, and a manticore I think, and we tried to fight them off.”

She’d begun to cry again. “Jason, we tried so hard, but there were so many of them.”

Jason shook his head. “I’m so sorry, Hazel. But you need to tell me what happened.”

She shook her head and cried more. Jason looked to find that Frank had appeared in the window of the message and he turned to Jason with a somber look. 

“You should get here quickly. Reyna has something to tell you.”

Jason packed and headed out within the hour and flew Tempest all the way to California. He hopped off his horse at the entrance of the camp. The entire camp seemed to be mourning, candles lit, and everything seemed to be teeming with an unsaid sadness. 

The two guards at the entrance bowed to him and their faces seemed sad. “Former Praetor.”

Jason nodded and walked slowly to the Senate, the place Frank had told Jason to meet Reyna. 

He walked into the area and found that it was empty except for a girl on a pyre and Reyna, her dogs walking around her, though they seemed to share her sadness and mourned with her. Reyna had her head down. 

“Tell me what happened.” Jason said. His voice echoed and the only sound that came back to him was the sound of sadness and grief. 

Reyna looked at him. “She was a Greek. The daughter of Theia.”

Jason looked down at the body shrouded in rainbow silks that turned into suns magically. 

“The goddess of light.”

Reyna nodded. “He didn’t know. He couldn’t have known. But he wanted to save them, and they were vastly outnumbered, and Hazel was hurt. He had to do something or they’d died. And so they shadow traveled, but she got hurt, something about the darkness mingling with the light in her, it hurt her. Her essence got consumed and she died. She was twelve.”

Jason looked at the girl on the pyre. “It’s not his fault. You have to know that.”

Reyna shook her head. “No one believes it to be his fault. Anyone seen or heard trying to slander Nico will be punished. But everyone is not worried, we heard the story from the other three demigods and Nico fought valiantly to save them.”

“Where is he?”

Reyna sighed. “In the temple of Pluto. Hazel has not been able to see him, he won’t come out of the temple. She is sure he isn’t even in there anymore.”

Jason shook his head. “I’ll go see him.”

He walked to go, but Reyna gripped his arm tight. He looked back at her and her eyes were sad.

“I have seen him do very dark things. But this… I do not know what happened. He looks changed. Even worse than when he-”

She cut herself off, but Jason knew what she was going to say. “That thing he did to Bryce Lawrence.”

Reyna looked momentarily shocked before she nodded sadly. “Yes. Yes. He was protecting me. And he was protecting those demigods. But she still died. And she. . . she. . .”

Reyna’s fist clenched and her jaw clenched as well. Jason knew it was a telltale sign of her trying not to cry. 

“She looked like Bianca.”

Jason ran out of the Senate building faster than his legs could possible have done otherwise.

  
  


Jason didn’t find Nico. He looked with Reyna and Hazel and they looked for a week, but when they opened the cabin it was empty and he wasn’t back at Camp Half-Blood. Percy was at school and Jason knew he couldn’t bother Percy, but he hadn’t seen Nico and it was already the eighth so he decided to go to New York City to ask him for help.

Percy opened his door as soon as Jason knocked. 

“Jason, what happened? What are you doing here?”

Jason’s eyes shifted nervously and he looked at Percy. “Can I come in?”

Percy nodded and let him in. He saw Annabeth standing by the window, hand on her dagger on her belt and looking at him. 

“Jason, what happened?”

Jason ran a hand through his hair nervously. “It’s Nico.”

Annabeth and Percy gave each other a telling look and Jason looked between them. “What? What do you know?”

Percy sighed and Annabeth took a few steps forward. “Jason, let Nico come to you.”

Jason shook his head. “No. No, he needs me. He needs to come back to Camp Half-Blood. I have to help him.”

Percy shook his head. “Jason, he needs time, he needs to be alone.”

Jason shook his head, faster this time. “No. No, he needs to be around people who love him, so he can get better.”

Percy and Annabeth sighed.

Annabeth sat Jason down. “Jason, Nico’s gone down to the Underworld. You have to let him sort this out himself.”

Jason thought of his boyfriend, alone in that cold dark place Hazel had talked about, and he shivered. 

“I need to find him. Can you tell him to come home soon?”

Percy and Annabeth nodded and Jason made his way out of the building quickly, walking quickly down the streets of New York City. 

Percy turned to his bedroom door. “You can come out now.”

Nico peeked his head out and he sighed when he found no sight of Jason. His clothes were tattered, still the same he’d fought those monsters in. His eyes looked sunken in and his skin clung to him as though he hadn’t eaten in days. 

“Thanks.” He said.

Annabeth shook her head. “You can’t hide from him forever, Nico. He loves you and he only wants to help.”

Nico thought of that girl, only twelve, and her body, mangled as she looked up at him, lifeless, and everyone looking at him in horror as he realized what he’d done. He remembered backing away quickly, his heart beating so fast in his chest he felt as though he’d fall over at the sheer force of the beats. He thought of how she looked just like Bianca. Years had passed, but Nico never forgot her face. 

“No one can help.” He said quietly. 

Annabeth and Percy turned to each other and led him to the kitchen, hopefully to get him to eat.

 

The little girl’s name was Aurora. 

Her funeral was four days before Valentine’s Day. 

Her funeral pyre burns on the fires of Camp Half-Blood and as her banner is burned and turns to ash Jason looks around, at Percy and Annabeth who showed up out of respect, and Butch, who says she would have been the closest thing to family as she was a daughter of light. Everyone looks somber, even Clarisse can’t muster, that day, the energy to be mean. She even says excuse me when she bumps into someone and Jason knows they’re all thinking of the war the previous summer, where there were too many funeral pyres, and for thirty days and thirty night they were lighting them, tears running dry with their loss. Jason knew no one blamed Nico, no one could. Being a demigod was dangerous, the moment you were born you were born with a target on your back and they all knew that. 

Annabeth cries and it’s one of the few times Jason’s seen her cry. 

Later, when Percy, Annabeth, and Jason are all sitting on the stoop of the Zeus cabin, swaddled in their coats, Jason asks Annabeth about it.

“Why did you cry?”

Annabeth turned to him. “She was too young. She was born just to die.”

Percy put his arm around her shoulder and something had changed them since Tartarus. Jason looked at them and now their eyes seemed darker, more tired, emptier. Percy tried to remain mirthful, but some days he would be leaning against Thalia’s tree and Jason would see him and Percy’d look on at Camp Half-Blood as though he no longer saw it, but a shell of what it once was, tainted by his experiences in Tartarus. And there were moments where Annabeth would drift, and her eyes looked as though they’d seen the depths of Hell and hadn’t returned with their sanity intact.

“Nico, in Tartarus, do you. . . do you think he’ll ever be okay?”

Annabeth turned to him. “That’s not something you come back from, Jason. Tartarus always finds a way to come back with you.”

Percy put his hands over her, a sign of comfort, and she leaned into him.

Jason looked up at the sky and saw Zoë Nightshade crossing the sky, her bow drawn, and Jason couldn’t help but wonder if it was worth it. To be a demigod and die defending the gods.

 

Jason found out Nico was at Percy’s apartment the day after the funeral, when Percy told him privately about it.

Percy sighed as he pulled Jason aside before his mom came to pick him and Annabeth up. “He’s at the apartment. He’s staying there for a while. He needed time, but now I think it’s time that he get help.”

Jason nodded. “Why did you tell me?”

Percy shrugged and looked at Annabeth who was waiting for him and she smiled at him and he smiled back. 

“Because he needs someone, someone to help him, otherwise he’ll end up just as bad as before. Plus, he likes you, I can tell. He deserves to have the things he wants.”

Jason nodded.

Jason walked into Percy’s room while Percy and his parents were gone to find Nico sitting on the bed, looking at the wall. He turned to Jason.

“How did you find me?”

Jason gave him a look and a sad smile. “Percy told me. But more than that, I knew you were here.”

Nico looked away from him. “I didn’t think you’d figure it out.”

Jason shook his head. “I’m always able to figure you out, Nico.”

Jason took Nico to a quiet place in the park and they talked as the cold bit at their cheeks. 

“It was my fault.” Nico said first.

Jason shook his head. “You didn’t know, you couldn’t have.”

Nico looked down at his hands. “I talked to her, in the Underworld. She went to Elysium.”

Jason nodded. “That’s good.”

Nico clenched his fist and when he looked up at Jason his eyes watered. “I shouldn’t have let her die, Jason. But there were so many of them. And the manticore, Jason. He mocked me. I should have killed him. I didn’t and I ended up killing that girl instead.”

Jason put a hand over Nico’s clenched one. “You couldn’t have known.”

Nico stood quickly, wiping his eyes. “I’m sorry. I have to go help my father with some things. I’ll be be back in a few days.”

Jason couldn’t even get a word in before Nico faded into the shadows and was gone. Jason wanted to chase after him, but knew it would only work to drive him away.

 

He woke up on February thirteenth to someone knocking frantically on his cabin door. 

He walked over and opened it to find Hazel, Reyna and Will standing there, Reyna and Hazel out of breath. 

“Tell him what you just told me, Hazel.” Reyna ordered.

Hazel turned to Jason. “It’s Nico. Nico just called me on an IM.”

Jason looked between them all. “What did he say?”

Hazel’s lip quivered and she couldn’t say anything, but Will interjected. “He’s going to bathe himself in the River Lethe.”

Jason’s heart stopped. “What?”

Hazel nodded. “You have to get him. You’re the only one that can.”

Jason looked at her. “How do I find the entrance to the Underworld?”

Hazel turned and led him away to the entrance, the hole that had opened up when the Battle of Labyrinth had taken place and turned into a portal. 

Hazel turned to him. “You have to stop him. He won’t listen to any of us. I tried to talk him out of it.”

Will handed him a sack. “Here’s some things in here to help, and some nectar and Ambrosia.”

Reyna looked at him. “Bring him back, Jason.”

Jason nodded and made his way down the hole. He descended for what seemed to be ages until he found himself right in the middle of the fields of Asphodel. Souls wandered aimlessly and Jason looked around, everything teemed with a feeling of death and when Jason looked up and could not see the sky he nearly panicked until he remembered his mission. 

He ran out of the fields, looking for a river when he ran to one. He followed it down, trying to find any place where he might find Nico.

He found Nico a little ways away after wandering for what seemed like hours. 

“Nico!” He shouted. 

He took off, running, watching as Nico walked slowly into the water. 

It was up to Nico’s knees when Jason reached him and he ran into the water.

He nearly fell over in pain as the river burned. 

“Nico.” He called out. 

Nico turned to him, eyes wide and scared. “I have to, Jason. I have to. I can’t anymore.”

Jason reached out a hand. “Nico come back here. This isn’t the answer.”

Nico shook his head. “It was so cold in that jar, Jason. I can’t stop remembering it. And that girl, Aurora, I killed her. I keep killing people. I can’t stop seeing her.”

Nico walked forward a bit and Jason reached out. “No! You’re not getting away from me again, Nico.”

Nico turned to him, his eyes sad and desperate. “Jason, leave me.”

Jason lunged forward, the burning river up to his thighs and Jason wanted to scream in pain, but watching Nico give up was worse, and Jason couldn’t let him do that. They had fought in the war together. Jason fell in love with Nico and there were so many things he’d done with Nico he couldn’t have done with anyone else. This scared him, because Hera had taken his memories, kept them from him without his permission, but Nico was choosing this, choosing to will away his memories. 

Jason took Nico’s hand and put it on his chest. 

“You have to fight this, Nico, whatever it is that’s hurting you, we can figure it out together.”

Nico looked at him. “I’m so tired.”

Jason nodded. “And you can rest soon, but not here, Nico. Please not here. Remember the first time we kissed?” 

He was grasping at any attempt to draw Nico out of water. Nico looked at him with a small smile, but his eyes looked miles away. “You told me you loved me.”

Jason nodded rapidly, slowly pulling Nico, inch by inch, back to the shore. “Yes. I love you, Nico. Do you want to forget that?”

Nico shook his head. 

“What about Hazel?” Jason asked.

“Hazel.” Nico said faintly.

Jason nodded. “She won’t have a brother if you do this. And Reyna, you’ll forget all about her, and Will. Will, your best friend.”

They were halfway to the shore. 

Nico nodded. “Yeah.”

Jason took both of his hands. “Please, Nico. Remembered when I asked you to stay at Camp Half-Blood?”

Nico looked back at the river. “But I need to do this, Jason. I have to. It’s too much.”

Jason shook his head. “No, you don’t, Nico. I can’t let you do this.”

They were nearly to the shore and Jason hoped he could convince Nico. 

“Come back with me, Nico. We can help you get better. Please, Nico.”

He pleaded. He hoped that of all the memories they’d made throughout the course of the year and half they’d known each other Nico could find a reason to walk away from this. Nico looked at him and wavered, and just as he did Jason pulled him back to the shore, his legs giving out under him and Nico falling right beside him. Jason gasped as he suddenly felt the pain course through him. 

He turned to Nico. “Please, stay.”

Nico nodded, and when the pain passed Jason stood weakly and carried Nico to the entrance of the Underworld.

“We’ll need to talk about this, later.” Jason said.

Nico nodded weakly, his eyes half-lidded. 

 

Jason lay in the infirmary on Valentine’s Day. His legs felt like lead and his arms were sore beyond belief, but he turned his head and he looked at the bed beside him to find Nico staring at him. Nico looked better, less tired, and his eyes no longer seemed distant like they had when he’d been standing in the River Lethe. 

Will walked in and smiled at Jason. “You’re awake! That’s great.”

Jason nodded and groaned. “Yeah, but I feel like I got hit by a bus.”

Will chuckled. “That’s the effects of the River Lethe. The rivers of the Underworld draw all strength possible from living creatures. Sorry for that. Just keep eating Ambrosia and soon you’ll be able to walk a bit.”

Will turned to Nico, who had the decency to look sheepish. 

“And you,” Will wagged his finger sternly, before he gave Nico a fond look, “oh forget it. I’m just glad you’re okay. Don’t do something so stupid again.”

Nico nodded wordlessly. 

Jason looked at Nico and Will seemed to understand their silence and he shook his head knowingly. “I’ll leave you both to it, then. Reyna and Hazel will come in after breakfast, which is in an hour.”

He walked out quietly and for a while Nico and Jason didn’t say anything. 

“I’m sorry you had to come save me.” Nico said quietly. 

Jason closed his eyes. “Stop.”

“What? I am. I’m sorry you got hurt.”

Jason clenched his fist and jaw. “You just don’t get it do you?”

He turned to Nico and hoped Nico understood the dark look in his eyes. “I’m not mad or upset that I got hurt, Nico. I’m upset that you didn’t let anyone help you.”

Nico looked down at his hands. “I guess I just haven’t really had anyone who offered. I deal with things better on my own.”

Jason scoffed. “No, you don’t, Nico. I’m sorry to tell you, but you don’t. And I thought that maybe being your boyfriend you would have at least given me enough consideration to tell me you were thinking of wiping your memories.”

Nico didn’t look at him. “I. . .”

Jason continued. “I know that I’ll never be able to understand Tartarus, but you have done me a favor and told me that I wasn’t helping. We could have found someone who could.”

Nico sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed to look at Jason.

He looked at Jason with eyes that looked sad and he chuckled humorlessly. “I didn’t tell you, because I knew if I did, you’d convince me not to. And I would have agreed. I would have walked away from that river the moment you asked.”

Jason looked at him and held out his hand weakly, which Nico took without question. 

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry about that girl, and about Tartarus, and your nightmares and I’m sorry that I’m not enough to help you, but I can’t lose you. I’m selfish and I can’t let you forget me.”

Jason thought of the way Reyna had looked at him when he came back and he thought of how it would feel if Nico had done that. 

He swallowed and his voice cracked. “I don’t want you to forget me.”

Nico nodded and moved to lay down beside Jason in his bed. They lay facing each other and Nico laced their fingers together. 

“Never again. I swear.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone have some Valentine's Day AUs or prompts??? :D I will accept them for the entire month of February.


	41. It Is A Truth Universally Acknowledged. . . .

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guess who wrote two chapters of fanfic this week and waited to update them??? THIS GIRL
> 
> Also I butchered the Regency Era and made it inclusive and gay and no one can harp on me because this is my AU and I will ruin it like I damn well please.   
> Or, in which the Author actually completely misconstrued the entire prompt SIlver_Bleeding_Earth submitted and turned it into a pride and prejudice AU for my own selfish reasons but hopes that the person will forgive me anyway

_**Prompt:** Okay... If you'd be inclined, can I see Nico and Jason in Regency Era (1800s or so more specifically the 1820s) with Nico being a sickly lord heir to rich but infamous estates and Jason being a prince/duke or someone who shouldn't be friends with "that immigrant family whos barely tolerated only because of their vast wealth" unless they'd want to suffer social suicide. (Or, in the ways of the terrible Author, who turned it into a Pride and Prejudice AU _

* * *

 

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a great fortune must be in want of a wife.

Not Nico di Angelo.

 

Nico di Angelo never wanted to move to England. It wasn’t his idea to go the English Countryside. But Frank and his regiment had been taken to England, and when Hazel asked if they could go, he had intended to refuse. But she implored him, and he merely heaved a sigh and moved their funds. It was relatively easy to move, to leave Italy. He would miss it, of course, the rich culture and paved streets he walked every morning. But he was sick, and getting even more sick, and eventually he would be forced to retire to his bed for the foreseeable future. So he moved their funds and finally moved into that expansive English estate his father left him many years ago before he’d died. 

They arrived to London rather easily. It took them several carriages and a boat or two, but within the week they were already on their way to Pemberley from London.

Hazel looked out at the vast country.

“It is very beautiful here.”

It rained constantly, there was nothing but hills, and green meadows. Nico missed the warm Italian sunlight and the mountains that towered in the distances and the vast merchants and artisans that resided on the streets of Venice. 

“I suppose.” He said disdainfully.

She looked at him and sighed. “Perhaps we could go back. If it is what you truly wish.”

He looked out the window, and as abismal as he found it, he knew that Hazel would miss Frank too much to leave him behind. 

Nico shook his head. “No. We will stay. I was told by Percy that the townsfolk have already begun to gossip. It would be nice to see what they’ve said..”

They arrived to the door of what could only be described as a mansion, nearly the build of a palace. Hazel ignored the extravagant building in order to grin at Nico.

 

Jason was walking back with a his book in hand when the dawn began to peak through the trees of the Grace estate. He was reading a novel as the sun came up and by the time he made his way back over the small bridge with the house in sight, the sun was already well above the treetops and Jason could hear Mr. Hill, the cook, and Betsy, the maid, going about their daily chores and everyone stirring in the house. He looked around at the trees and heard the birds chirp as he made his way down the path to the front door.

“My dear Mr. Grace, have you heard? Netherfield Park is let at last. Do you not want to know who has taken it?” Jason could hear his stepmother tell his father from his study right by the door. 

“As you wish to tell me, my dear, I doubt I have any choice in the matter.” His father said with an amused yet tired look.

Jason looked into the window to find his stepmother looking excitable and opened the door to the house with a smirk. Jason turned to his father’s study and found Annabeth leaning into the door, straining to hear, Thalia right beside her. 

“Annabeth, what have I told you about listening at the door?”

Annabeth shooed him away. “There's a Mr. Jackson arrived from the North.”

“Five thousand a year!” Thalia mocked in their stepmother’s voice, laughing along as she did it.

Jason’s eyes widened. “Really? That’s quite the fortune.”

Annabeth shushed Jason. “Nothing so trivial matters to me, Jason. Mr. Jackson shall have the Netherfield Estate. It has the largest library in the county, Jason.”

“He's single!” Thalia smirked at Annabeth. 

Annabeth rolled her eyes as she continued to listen to Jove and Hera discuss the illustrious Mr. Jackson.

“Mr. Jackson is single!” They heard their stepmother say.

“How can that possibly affect them?” Jason’s father said, Jason could hear the tired amusement in his father’s voice.

His stepmother sighed loudly. “Mr. Grace, how can you be so tiresome? You know he must marry one of them.”

Jason turned and Annabeth and Thalia made faces of disgust. Thalia feigned a gagging motion.

“That is his design in settling here?” Jason’s father asked.

“You must go and visit him at once.”

Without any more noise their father opened the door and Jason, Annabeth, and Thalia all stepped back in shock, trying to hide their shame.

“Good heavens. People.” Mr. Grace said, and walked into the parlor where Jason, Annabeth, and Thalia all followed after Mrs. Grace entered the room, still excited.

“For we may not visit if you do not, as you well know, Mr. Grace,” she went on, and as Mr. Grace settled into his chair Hera sighed in frustration, “Are you listening? You never listen.”

Mr. Grace sighed. “There's no need. I already have.”

“You have?” Jason asked.

“When?” Annabeth asked.

“Oh, Mr. Grace, how can you tease me so? Have you no compassion for my poor nerves?” Mrs. Grace said in frustration.

Mr. Grace chuckled. “You mistake me, my dear. I have the highest respect for them. They've been my constant companions these twenty years.”

Annabeth sat in front of him, interest in her gray eyes. “Is he amiable?”

Mr. Grace nodded wordlessly. 

“Is he handsome?” Mrs. Grace asked.

“Oh, he's sure to be!” Thalia mocked in a high pitched voice. 

Hera gave her a glare before she turned back to Mr. Grace. 

“So will he come to the ball tomorrow?” Jason asked. 

Mr. Grace nodded. “I believe so.”

Thalia turned to Annabeth with a smirk and Jason watched Thalia pull Annabeth out of the room, whispering rapidly. 

 

The very next day Jason sat beside Annabeth as they entered the hall and they spotted Piper who sat beside them. Jason liked Piper, and had he loved her he would have married her. But he had intended to marry for love. And so had Piper, though slowly, as the years dragged on, she found it harder and harder, as did Jason. But tonight they would enjoy company and enjoy the possible suitors that came to them. The hall buzzed with feasible energy of merriment, it was warm, with everyone talking and dancing and laughing and chatting. The group of musicians played on the balcony, a happy tune Jason recognized and loved, and he relished in his company. His best friend seated to his right and his sister seated to his left, and Thalia running amok somewhere, most likely attempting to convince some officers to let her join the regiment.

Jason looked about the room and leaned in to talk to Annabeth over the loud music. “If every man does not end the evening in love with you, then I'm no judge of beauty.”

Annabeth snorted. “Or men.”

Jason laughed. “No, they are far too easy to judge.”

Annabeth shrugged and looked around at their friends that filled the hall. “They’re not all bad. It is unfortunate you have yet to find a man or woman which tempts you.”

“Humourless poppycocks, in my limited experience.” Jason laughed. 

Annabeth shook her head and looked about the room for Thalia. “One day, someone will catch your eye, and then you'll have to watch your tongue.”

Just as she said it two tall, dark haired men walked into the parlor and the entirety of the hall freezed, half in shock, Jason speculated, and the other half merely pausing to get a look at the people who had seemed to appear nearly out of nowhere. One of the tall dark haired men smiled at everyone, his face amiable and his green eyes looking mischievous. A girl, looking of Asian descent, as Jason had met one, but not many, on his trips to London with his sisters and his father. And then another man, looking surly and distant stood tall and proud with dark hair and even darker eyes. 

“How good of you to come.” Tristan McLean told them. 

Jason leaned into Annabeth once more to smirk. “Which of the painted peacocks is our Mr. Jackson?”

Piper inclined with a barely noticeable wave of her finger. “He's on the right. On the left is his father’s ward, her name is Drew Tanaka. Mr. Jackson, senior, took to raising her when her father died at sea with Mr. Jackson’s father.”

Jason noted that Mr. Jackson was the man with bright green eyes. “The person with the quizzical brow?”

Jason had meant the man with dark eyes. They enticed him, yet he could tell there was something  guarded about them.

Piper smirked knowingly at him. “That is his good friend, Mr. di Angelo.”

Jason chuckled humorlessly. “He looks miserable, poor soul.”

Piper shrugged. “He may be, but poor he is not.”

Jason gave her a look. “Tell me, Piper, how much is rumored for that man’s earning.” 

Piper looked at him. “Ten thousand a year, and he owns half of Derbyshire.”

“The miserable half.” Jason remarked, with a chuckle.

As Mr. Jackson, Ms. Tanaka, and Mr. di Angelo walked across the hall to the other end, Jason made eye contact with Mr. di Angelo and the man stared at him deeply for a moment before averting his gaze quickly. 

Jason found no reason to remark on the entire exchanged at all.

“Mr. Grace, you must introduce him to the girls immediately.” Jason heard, as his stepmother dragged them all over to greet them without a moment’s hesitation. Piper followed to be introduced by her father. 

“Mr. Jackson, my eldest daughter you know.” Tristan McLean inclined to Piper, who bowed gracefully.

Mr. Grace stood forward then and introduced them all, Thalia somehow appearing just in time. “Mrs. Grace, Miss Annabeth Chase, my ward. My son Jason, and Miss Thalia Grace.”

Mr. Jackson smiled at them all and then smiled widely at Annabeth. “I'm delighted to make your acquaintance.”

Annabeth blushed and looked away as Mr. Jackson turned to his companion that stood beside his sister. “And may I introduce Mr. di Angelo of Pemberley in Derbyshire.”

He said nothing as they moved to stand by the dancefloor. After a beat of silence Annabeth spoke directly to Mr. Jackson.

“How do you like it here in Hertfordshire?”

Mr. Jackson nodded enthusiastically. “Very much.”

“The library at Netherfield, I've heard, is one of the finest.” Annabeth offered, curiosity laced in her voice. 

Mr. Jackson nodded, and sighed. “It fills me with guilt. I'm not a good reader. I prefer being out of doors,” seeming to believe he’d made a mistake in his wording as Annabeth smirked at him he stuttered, “Oh, I mean, I can read, of course. And I'm not suggesting you can't read out of doors.”

Annabeth smirked as she swooped in to save him from his very obvious fumbling. “I wish I read more, but there seem to be so many other things to do.”

Mr. Jackson nodded his head quickly and swallowed his nervousness. “That's exactly what I meant.”

He offered her a dance and she took to his lead. They danced, Annabeth keeping herself composed through the entirety and Jason could see that Mr. Jackson’s eyes found interest in little else but her form and her face. 

He turned to see his stepmother remarking to his father. “Oh, look. Annabeth's dancing with Mr. Jackson.”

Jason turned to Nico di Angelo, who stood beside him, still and impassive, nearly looking somber, but not quite yet. 

“Do you dance, Mr. di Angelo?” Jason asked. 

“Not if I can help it.” He said tersely. 

And that seemed to put an end to their conversation. Jason had been prepared to ask him to dance, finding all variations of couples gathered to dance in the hall, but Nico looked away from him with cold indifference and thus silenced whatever other conversations might have sprouted. 

Later, Piper and Jason sat beneath the seats in the hall, seats built like bleachers, so Jason and Piper had capability to withdrawal from the party at any moment when they needed reprieve. It was then that Jason and Piper turned to find Mr. Jackson and Mr. di Angelo speaking a little ways away. 

“I've never seen so many pretty girls. And such handsome men, in your case of course.” Mr. Jackson remarked amiably. 

Mr. di Angelo scoffed. “You were dancing with the only handsome girl. And these men are certainly not up to par.”

Mr. Jackson seemed to ignore his last remark and sighed dreamily. “Annabeth Chase. She is certainly the most beautiful creature I have ever beheld. And her brother Jason is agreeable, is he not?”

Nico looked at him indifferently. “Perfectly tolerable. Certainly not handsome enough to tempt me. Return to your partner and enjoy her smiles. You're wasting your time with me.”

Jason turned to Piper with a look of offense and shock. 

Piper shook her head sympathetically. “Count your blessings, Jason. If he liked you, you'd have to talk to him.”

Jason nodded, waving away the feeling of vain hurt at Nico di Angelo’s remark. “Precisely. I wouldn't dance with him for all of Derbyshire, let alone the miserable half.”

Halfway through the evening Mr. Jackson offered Piper a dance in which they got along swimmingly, Piper dropping off hints of the availability of Annabeth to him. But more than that she enjoyed his company and they laughed amiably as they danced with quick steps. Once the dance was over Piper bowed obligingly and Mr. Jackson smiled at her. 

“I enjoyed that so much, Miss McLean.”

He made his way over to where Mrs. Grace stood beside Jason and Annabeth as they chatted with Mr. di Angelo and Ms. Tanaka watched them from off to the side, looking on at the dance in the hall with a self-satisfied smirk. 

“How well you dance, Mr. Jackson.” Mrs. Grace remarked.

Mr. Jackson shook his head and smiled wide. “I've never enjoyed a dance so much.”

“My daughter Annabeth is a splendid dancer, is she not?” Mrs. Grace diverted.

Percy looked at her with an affectionate glint in his eyes. “She is indeed.”

He turned to Jason. “Your friend Miss McLean is a most amusing young woman. She’s quite the spirit.”

“Oh, yes, I adore her.” Jason said with an amusing lilt in his voice.

Mrs. Grace sighed. “It is a pity she's not more handsome.”

Jason turned to glare at her. “Mother!”

Mrs. Grace ignored him in favor of going on. “Oh, but Jason would never admit that she's plain. Of course, it's our Annabeth who's considered the beauty of the county.”

Annabeth looked away uncomfortably. 

“Mother, stop!” Jason said. 

Annabeth gave him a grateful look but Mrs. Grace seemed rudely ignorant of the entire exchange. She fanned herself. 

“When she was but fifteen there was a gentleman, Mr. Castellan, I believe his name was, was so much in love with her, I was sure he would make her an offer. However, he did write her some very pretty verses.”

“And that put paid to it,” Jason interrupted her quickly, to avoid her chatter and obvious lack of propriety, “I wonder who discovered the power of poetry in driving away love.”

“I thought poetry was the food of love.” Nico di Angelo remarked. 

Jason scoffed. “Of a fine, stout love. But if it is only a vague inclination, one poor sonnet will kill it stone dead.”

Nico raised an eyebrow in curiosity, and despite having chosen to decided loathe Nico di Angelo, Jason could not deny how handsome the man seemed. 

“So, what do you recommend to encourage affection?” Nico asked.

“Dancing,” Jason said, giving him a meaningful stare, “even if one's partner is barely tolerable.”

He walked off without another word, his lips set in a thin line the entire time, and made his way out of the hall, glad to have been done dealing with the horrendous ordeal of Nico di Angelo’s horrible mannerisms and pride.

  
  


As Thalia, Annabeth, and Jason all sat on Annabeth’s bed that very same night Annabeth brushed her hair and looked at them. 

“Mr. Jackson is just what a young man ought to be. Sensible, good-humoured…”

“Handsome, conveniently rich…” Thalia interjected, smirking at her.

Annabeth chuckled and smacked her arm lightly. “You know I do not believe marriage should not be driven by thoughts of money.”

Jason nodded. “Only deep love will persuade me to marry. Which is why I'll end up a bachelor just as Mother worries I shall.”

Thalia laughed. “Our brother, ever the romantic.”

Jason chuckled. “I must admit that fanciful ideals have made me most determined to find a spouse which I feel strongly for.”

Annabeth looked at them both. “Do you really believe he liked me?”

Jason laughed. “He danced with you most of the night, and stared at you the rest.”

Annabeth hid her smile.

Thalia just sighed forlornly. “I give you leave to like him. You've liked many stupider.”

Jason nodded in support of Thalia’s claim. “You're a great deal too apt to like people in general. All the world is good in your eyes.”

Annabeth shook her head and frowned. “Not his friend. Oh, I still can't believe what he said about you.”

Jason did not look up from where he was unlacing his boots. “Mr. di Angelo?”

His sisters merely stared at him. He let out a chuckle. “I'd more easily forgive his vanity had he not wounded mine. But no matter. I doubt we shall ever speak again.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback??? Would anyone like more of this???? 
> 
> Also I am so not sorry for using the prompt to do this I love this so much


	42. They'll Turn You Into Something Whether You Are It Or Not

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay so first, y'all really have to listen to Never Get You Right by Brandon Flowers because that song is the title for this chapter and I find it to be be very accurate and beautiful.  
> Also, user I Am Nobody asked me to write an asexual transgender Nico for this prompt and as I have a brother who is asexual and transgender this one really hits home and I hope that everyone loves this as much as much as I loved writing it.
> 
> In which the author refuses to let Nico di Angelo become part of the tragic transgender trope and give him the happiness he deserves  
> Or, in which Jason loves Nico no matter what, and maybe Nico needs that in every universe I've written him in.

_**Prompt:** Are you still taking prompts? If you are, I would be immensely happy if you write something where Nico is an asexual transgender _

* * *

 

**_But they'll never get you right,_ **   
**_ I've been watching you all night.  
And the people passing by,  
Should tremble at your sight. _ **

**_All these bad dreams, and backseats,_ **   
**_High beams, through the dark streets,_ **   
**_A good angel with bad wings._ **   
**_No one to help you out._ **

**_And I'll give you my opinion,_ **   
**_It's the only one I've got,_ **   
**_They'll turn you into something,_ **   
**_Whether you are it or not._ **

 

_****_

 

The universe has always been comprised of many parts. It is consistent of starbursting and supernovas and galaxies the naked eye would never understand. It is made up of stardust and the parts in all of us that we have never considered to be important. That being said, no one ever told Nico that even with all the stars in his veins, that one day he’d learn to feel like his own skin had never fit the exact way he’d wanted.

His body had always felt like a glove two sizes too big, or a shoe one size too small.

Nico learned what transgender meant when he was fourteen. It fit, he thought. It fit him much better than any name and body ever had and then he realized what he was and maybe it was supposed to be liberating, but living as the gender he was born as had only hurt him even more, knowing that his body wasn’t being true to itself. It hurt, it hurt more than anything else in his life.  

He moved out of his father’s home when he was sixteen and never looked back, could never look back. There he went by another name, lived another life, but when he left that behind he found something even better than acceptance. He found a home.

It started when he told Percy and Annabeth when he moved in with them.

“I. . . This is hard to explain.” He stammered, as they sat down in front of each other.

“Take your time, Nico.” Annabeth said softly, her voice helping him reign in his panic that this could end badly.

He took in a deep breath. “I’m not. . . I’m-”

His throat closed up every time he tried to open his mouth to say the words.

“I wasn’t born this way, in this body.” He said sadly, looking down, finding himself unable to explain it and say the words out loud. Saying it out loud would mean that he had to face this reality.

“Transgender.” Percy said simply.

Both Nico and Annabeth turned to him with eyes wide in surprise.

He looked between them. “What? I read!”

Nico gave a small chuckle and nodded his head slowly. “Yeah. That’s it.”

Annabeth turned to look at Nico now and Percy shrugged. “You’re Nico. You’ve always been Nico, whether your body says otherwise.”

Annabeth looked at him and gave him a smile. “Percy’s right. You’ll always be Nico, nothing is going to change that.”

Nico’s eyes watered. “Thank you.”

Percy gave him an honest smile, and now that Nico had moved on from that preteen crush, it was a comfort. “Hey, we’re friends. We couldn’t hate you for something like that.”

Annabeth nodded. “Beside, we’ll help you, if you’d like. We could save up money for you to have surgery.”

Nico considered how broke he was and how Percy and Annabeth had just started college. “Maybe it’s not really the time for that.”

Annabeth and Percy turned to each other and then turned back to him.

“No.” They said in unison.

Nico furrowed his eyebrows. “No?”

Annabeth shook her head. “No. You shouldn’t have to live like this, so we’ll help you. It might take a year or two, but we’ll do it, Nico. I swear.”

Nico didn’t fight it, couldn’t resist the tantalizing idea of being in a body he felt comfortable in.

That night they had dinner together in their small kitchen and Percy and Annabeth held hands and Nico smiled and laughed for what felt like the first time since Bianca had died and he felt lighter, the laughter settling into Nico’s bones like happiness was the only thing that fit him like a glove.

In December, after being with them for six months Nico was being led to some unknown location with a blindfold around his eyes.

“We’re almost there.” He heard Annabeth say on his right side.

“So close!” Percy said, and his voice was laced with excitement.

He took a few more tentative steps, hearing a door close behind him and he could smell that token smell of brown sugar and chocolate chips.

“Are we in Mrs. Jackson’s apartment?” Nico asked.

Annabeth and Percy sighed. “Dammit.”

Nico heard Sally laugh as Annabeth untied the blindfold. “Don’t worry, Percy. Maybe one day you’ll find a way to surprise him.”

Nico rolled his eyes as the blindfold came off. “Right.”

Percy sighed again. “Okay, well, hey, we had a small party planned for you.”

Nico looked around at the green banner and the blue birthday cake at the table and for some reason it shocked him. He was too young when Bianca was alive to remember birthdays, and since then he’d never had a birthday with just his father.

“I’ve never had a birthday. . .” He said, softly.

Annabeth, Percy, Paul, and Sally all smiled at him.

“We know, Percy thought of the idea.” Sally said.

He turned to Percy. “Really?”

Percy shrugged. “I remembered that one year you really liked the blue birthday cake and thought maybe we could give you something to really look forward to.”

Nico shook his head. “I-”

Annabeth shook her head. “You’re family, Nico. This is what family is all about.”

Nico thought about how maybe he’d never felt comfortable in his own skin but with Annabeth and Percy and Percy’s parents, he seemed to fit in, not completely, not yet, but he’d have his own space to burrow into and make himself at home. Something he’d never had before.

“Thank you.” He said.

They smiled at him.

Percy’s eyes widened. “Oh! Before cake, we all have a present to give you.”

Percy ran from the room and Nico looked around at Paul, Annabeth, and Sally. “A present? You didn’t have to-”

Annabeth held up a hand to silence him. “Just wait until you find out what it is.”

Nico closed his mouth against his better judgement.

Percy came running into the room with an envelope.

He smiled at Nico. “So Mom, being how she is, demanded that Dad give her alimony. And we didn’t know what to use it for, so Paul pitched in and so did Annabeth and I, and we got you this. We wanted to give it to you early.”

He handed the envelope to Nico, who took it in confusion.

Everyone watched him expectantly as he opened it.

“What is-” He was cut off as he saw the check. The check made out to Nico di Angelo. The correct amount necessary for Nico to make the transition, down to the very last cent. His throat tightened as he felt tears spill from his eyes and he looked up at them all.

Paul and Sally smiled cautiously at him.

“Percy explained everything to us.” Paul explained.

Sally nodded. “And we wanted to help, so we got all the money together for you. You’ve already been through so much, dear.”

Nico looked down at the check to make sure it was real.

“Is this a dream?” He said, his voice cracking.

Annabeth and Percy shook their heads and smiled brightly at him.

“Nope. You’re really doing this, Nico.”

He gave them an honest smile, the idea of belonging in his own skin a blindingly bright idea.

“I don’t know what to say.”

Annabeth shook her head and put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t say anything, just blow the candles out on your birthday cake.”

 

Nico met Hazel when he was eighteen.

Two years had passed since Nico had left, but somehow she found him living with Percy and Annabeth still.

It started on a Tuesday when their buzzer went off.

“Hello, is this Percy Jackson’s apartment?” A soft voice asked.

Percy buzzed her in and when she arrived to their door all three of them stood in the doorway.

Hazel looked down at her paper and looked at Annabeth. “Hi, are you Hayden di Angelo’s daughter?”

Percy and Annabeth, without words or a glance at Nico, glared at the girl.

“No. Hayden di Angelo doesn’t have a daughter, only a son. Not that he’s ever cared about him to begin with.” Annabeth said sharply.

Hazel’s eyes widened at her sharp tone and Nico pulled them both back. “I’ll handle this.”

They looked at him with worry.

“Are you sure, Nico?” Percy asked.

Nico nodded and he stepped forward.

“What do you need?” He said quietly.

Hazel looked down at her paper in confusion. “I-I was looking for Hayden’s daughter. I ran away from home and she’s my sister. I wanted to see her. I have a photo of her.”

Nico looked down at the photo she had in her hand and he winced.

“You won’t find his daughter here.”

She looked down and her face looked crestfallen. “Oh, okay. I must have the wrong apartment.”

Nico put a hand on her shoulder. “No, you’re not understanding. You won’t find his daughter here, but you will find his son.”

She looked at him for a moment. “But,” she looked down at the photo and her eyes widened as she looked up at him in realization, “oh.”

Nico nodded. “Yes. I’m his son, Nico di Angelo.”

She looked at him for a moment in shock. “You’re. . . trans.”

Percy and Annabeth took a protective step forward. It had been years since someone had bullied Nico for being the way he was, but it left a lasting impression the first time it happened, so now Percy and Annabeth had taken up the role of unspoken bodyguards for Nico against anyone who had a problem with who he was.

“You have a problem with that?” Annabeth said darkly.

Hazel turned to them for a moment before she looked at Nico and her face split with a wide grin. “Of course not! I- he just didn’t tell me that you were. I’ve been looking for a girl this whole time!”

Percy grumbled. “Yeah, well he’s not so great about actually knowing his children.”

Hazel looked at Nico and she looked at him as though she was seeing him for the first time, seeing some part of him that even he couldn’t see.

“I have spent years looking for you.”

Somehow, the way she said it, struck something in Nico, as though she’d been looking for something so much deeper than what lay inside of him.

She held out her hand for him to shake and she looked as though she was crying. “Hi, I’m Hazel Levesque and I’m your father’s daughter.”

Nico pulled her into a tentative hug and when she wrapped her arms around him it felt, like the shaking laughter he learned with Percy and Annabeth, like they belonged there.

That day she stayed well into the night. She told him about his father, about how he’d abandoned Hazel’s mother when he found out Nico was born. She asked him about his transition and after the couple of years since it was happened Nico felt comfortable telling her about it. He was grateful that Hazel accepted him as he was, it made it easier to talk to her. They stayed up well into the night, catching up, talking, and when she left in the morning, promising to be later that day, he was relieved.

Percy and Annabeth poked their heads out of their bedroom when they heard the door to the apartment close.

“So, how did it go?” Annabeth asked.

Nico smiled at her. “Great.”

 

Hazel introduced Nico to all her friends, which included Reyna.

Nico met Reyna at Hazel’s birthday party.

He was leaning against the wall awkwardly as Percy and Annabeth mingled when a tall Puerto Rican woman came up to him. She looked like she wasn’t older than twenty.

“Hey.” She said.

Nico looked at her for a moment. “Hi.”

The girl scanned the room looking for someone. “Hazel told me about you, Nico, right?”

Nico nodded. “Yes. Who are you?”

She turned and held out her hand. “Reyna Ramirez. Hazel said you and I could get along.”

Nico chuckled. “Really?”

She nodded. “Sure. You are looking disdainfully at all the people here and refusing to dance. That’s already two things we have in common.”

She became his best friend that day.

 

Nico moved out Percy and Annabeth’s apartment when he was nineteen. When he moved into his new apartment Reyna and Thalia helped him.

After the third box Thalia groaned at them. “Why are we doing this when my brother is ridiculously buff?”

Nico sighed. “Is this another ploy for me to meet your brother?”

Reyna looked at him. “I don’t know, Nico. Jason seems like your type.”

“And what type is that?” He asked indignantly.

Thalia chuckled. “Tall, muscular, hero-type. My brother is far too good for his own good.”

Nico sighed and walked down the stairs, looking up at them as he walked.

“I don’t need you setting me up and I don’t need a hero-complex. And just for your information tall and muscular is-”

Just as he said it he felt himself falling forward, tripping, and arms caught him. When he looked up he found it was a blond man with blue eyes and glasses.

“Sorry.” Nico said as he blushed and found his balance.

The blond man smiled at him. “It’s fine.”

Thalia laughed from behind Nico. “Did I mention I texted him already?”

Nico turned around. “What?”

Reyna pointed to the blond man. “That’s Jason Grace.”

Nico turned and Jason Grace was giving him a good natured smile with bright blue eyes.

Well shit.

 

Jason comes with the packaged deal of Piper and Leo.

Piper is beautiful, she’s funny and brilliant and in a lot of ways Nico admired her. But he hadn’t felt attraction to her. He thought that perhaps that he was gay, and when Jason asked him out on a date and Nico felt his palms sweat with nervousness, he thought maybe that was true.

They don’t go anywhere because Jason had wanted to cook dinner for Nico.

Nico walked into Jason’s apartment to smell the charred remains of something wafting in the air.

“Jason?”

Jason poked his head through the kitchen doorway and his glasses were askew and his apron covered in unknown ingredients.

“Oh, you’re here.” Jason said.

Nico walked over to the kitchen and chuckled. “I’m half an hour late. Is everything okay?”

Nico looked down to find the oven open and the dish that had once maybe, possibly, probably, been food looked burned beyond recovery.

Nico tried to hold in his laughter as Jason lifted the food from the dish and banged it against the countertop and it crumbled into ashes.

Jason deflated and Nico chuckled. Jason looked at him.

“I just wanted to get something right.”

Nico let out a small laugh. “If burning food beyond recognition was the goal, then you definitely did something right.”

Jason began to laugh but he shook his head. “It’s not funny. Now we can’t have our romantic dinner in.”

Nico chuckled and went over to his cabinets. He examined the products in the cabinets and turned to Jason with a sympathetic look.

“How about we have mac and cheese and play Mario Kart?”

Jason shook his head. He began to frantically clean up the ashes of the destroyed dinner and Nico could see his hands getting burned when he winced as he picked up the still hot crumbs of dinner.

“No, no, I have to fix this. I promised you I would-” Nico put a hand on his to stop him.

Jason looked up from where he was knelt to see Nico knelt beside him and he stopped midsentence.

Nico shook his head. “You didn’t promise anything. It’s okay, Jason.”

Jason looked down at the crumbs forlornly. “I just wanted to make it so that you’d want to go on another date with me.”

Nico chuckled and sighed. “What makes you think I wouldn’t have said yes either way?”

Jason looked up at him. “You-”

Nico chuckled and began to put the burnt ashes of the dinner on a platter. “I like you, Jason. It wouldn’t have mattered if you gave me McDonald’s or a filet mignon. It matters that I like you.”

Jason smiled at him and helped him clean up the mess. “I like you too.”

Nico looked at him and chuckled. “Then for the sake of us both, next time just have Boston Market drop off the meal and pretend you made it like a normal person.”

Jason smiled at him, his glasses still skewed. “Or mac and cheese and Mario Kart.”

Nico pushed his glasses into place and Jason blushed. “Yeah. Perfect date.”

 

Telling Jason about the surgery had been harder than Nico had expected.

He was never able to tell him in the beginning of their relationship, too scared to ruin what they’d built. He also didn’t like to be reminded of the way he had once felt a though he was living two lives. He didn’t want to think about the body parts that didn’t fit him and the skin that fit in all the wrong ways.

It turned out that he wouldn’t be the one to tell him about it, but a trip to the beach.

 

They were lounging on a towel on the deserted beach by the Long Island Sound.

Nico still had his shirt on when Jason turned to him, skin golden and tanned and his blond hair seemed to turn even more golden. His eyes were bright as he smiled down at Nico.

“Want to go for a swim?”

Nico shrugged. “Sure.”

Jason ran to the water and Nico pulled off his shirt and walked after him. Nico waded in the water, waiting for Jason to come up to the surface.

When Jason emerged from the water he looked at Nico and smiled wide before his face fell.

“Nico. . .”

Nico looked at him. “What? You asked me to go swimming, not all of us can have beach bodies and be ridiculously buff.”

Jason pointed to some part of him, walking closer. “What are. . . I. . .”

Nico looked down and remembered he still had the scars from the surgery and he couldn’t believe he’d been so stupid to forget them.

He began to back away in panic, and Jason simply stood in the water, looking at him. Nico ran out of the water and took off through the hot sand that burned his feet to the car in the parking lot so far off it gave him time to be alone with himself.

He slammed the door to the car, locked the doors, and began to hyperventilate.

He knew not everyone accepted dating a trans person. He knew that a lot of people were fine with it in theory, but when it came to dating it was different. He hadn’t expected Jason to be the kind of person who felt that way, but people always surprised Nico when they revealed their feelings about him.

He wrung his hands and tried to hold the tears that muddled his eyesight and burned his eyes. Maybe it was the fact that Nico loved Jason, or that Jason had made himself a very permanent fixture in Nico’s life, but he thought of the prospect of Jason never talking to him again and his heart clenched in anxiety.

He heard a knocking on the driver’s side door and found Jason standing there with all their things in his arms. Nico unlocked the door and Jason wordlessly loaded the car back up as Nico’s heart raced.

He prepared himself for shouting as Jason got into the car but he looked over cautiously and only found Jason gripping the wheel tightly, so tight that his knuckles turned white.

“You’re mad.” Nico remarked.

Jason didn’t say anything. He simply put the key into the ignition and turned on the car and pulled out of the parking lot. They drove back into the city and the silence was deafening. Nico could feel the tension in the air as though it were tangible.

Jason parked in front of Nico’s apartment and he locked the doors.

“Were you ever going to tell me?” Jason said quietly.

Nico looked at his hands in his lap. “I was going to. At some point.”

“At some point.” Jason said faintly.

Neither of them said anything for a while.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jason asked.

Nico chuckled humorlessly. “Why would I? Things like this, we may live how we do now, but people aren’t kind to trans people, they never had been, Jason. You know that.”

Jason turned to him. “And you thought I would be like that? That I would do that to you?”

Nico sighed. “I never know how people are going to react. I certainly didn’t know how you’d react to it.”

“You don’t trust me.” Jason said, his voice quiet, calm, like he was trying with every bit of his might to control himself, always in control of himself.

Nico looked over at him and found a stormy and dark expression on Jason’s face. “No, of course I trust you.”

“It doesn’t seem like it.” Jason said sharply.

Nico hated the way his voice sounded pained, but he sighed and unlocked the doors. “We have to talk about this later. Not here, not now.”

Jason nodded. “You’re right. Later.”

 

Jason stormed into his apartment once he got home, slamming the door behind him so hard it nearly rattled off its hinges.

“Whoa, Superman, what’s with the abuse to our front door?” Leo asked.

Jason seethed, his body shaking with hurt and rage. “He didn’t-! He didn’t even tell me! He lied to me!”

Piper got up from her seat next to Leo. “Hey, hey,” she put a hand on his shoulder, “who lied?”

When Jason aggressively shoved her hand away she knew he was in trouble. “Nico! He lied to me!”

Piper looked at him, horror donning on her face. “You found out.”

Jason turned to her, eyes wide and upset. “You knew?!”

She turned to Leo in panic, who took a step forward and held up his hands. “Hey man, cool it. It wasn’t our secret to share. He told us when we had to get him some meds when Reyna and Hazel were out of town with Percy and Annabeth.”

Jason clenched his fists. “You didn’t tell me! You knew he was lying and you didn’t tell me!”

Jason continued to seeth until Piper walked straight up to him and slapped him, the sound making a loud cracking resound in the living room.

“Get over yourself, Jason Grace!” She shouted, though she was as calm as ever.

His breathing calmed and his fists clenched.

She sighed. “Good, now that you’ve gotten that out- Jason, you know better than anyone that secrets are not meant to be shared, and especially this one.”

Jason sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I just- he lied to me.”

Leo looked at him with a sharp eye, as though his next question would determine his feelings of Jason.

“What are you mad about? That Nico is trans, or the fact that he lied?”

Jason turned to him in shock. “What? How could I hate Nico just because he wants to be himself? I love him. I love every part of him. I’m mad it’s been six months and he never told me about this.”

Piper sighed. “You have to admit, trans people aren’t exactly known for getting a warm reception from people.”

Jason turned and frowned at her. “I don’t care. I love Nico. And it’s no secret either. I thought I made it clear that I loved him unconditionally.”

Leo settled back and shook his head. “So did his dad, man. But look where he is now.”

Piper nodded at Leo and turned to Jason. “You can’t blame him for being scared that the one person he cares the most about might not accept him. It’s reasonable.”

Jason sat down on the loveseat right across from them and let out a breath. “It’s just. . . A lot to take in.”

Leo snorted. “Man, you think you have it bad? Nico is part of a marginalized group that is continuously discriminated against, and he’s sitting somewhere worried the man he loves is going to do that to him. Sorry, but you being shocked to learn your boyfriend is in fact a boy is not the biggest deal here, bro.”

Jason and Piper turned to him in surprise.

“That was surprisingly insightful.” Piper said.

Leo shrugged. “Maybe. I did some reading after Nico told us. I can read, you know, Beauty Queen.”

Piper rolled her eyes and turned to Jason. “Leo does have a point though. You need to talk to Nico, especially about this.”

Jason nodded and stood. “I’ve been an idiot, haven’t I?”

“You certainly do know yourself well, Jason Grace.” Reyna said from his doorway, her face set in a glower.

Jason gulped and Piper and Leo both inched away in their seats.

Reyna strode into the room and bunched the front of Jason’s shirt in her fist. “I have a crying Nico di Angelo on the phone with Percy and Annabeth. What the hell did you do to him?”

Jason sighed. “I found out about Nico. About him being trans.”

Reyna looked at him, her eyes narrowed, and she clenched her fist tighter. “You have a minute to explain why you think finding out about Nico warrants making him cry before I make you cry, Grace.”

Jason held his hands up. “I was just shocked is all. I told him we’d talk later. I wanted to apologize to him, for how I handled this.”

Reyna searched his eyes and let got of his shirt. He let out a breath as he smoothed out his shirt.

Reya took a step back. “You’re an idiot. And if you don’t fix this I’m going to be very angry, Jason. A unhappy Nico makes me unhappy and you,” she stood close to him now, glaring in full effect it nearly made him cower, “do not want to make me to be unhappy.”

Jason nodded wordlessly, then she left, strutting out as though she were walking through a battlefield.

“Now that is a powerful woman.” Piper said.

Leo nodded in agreement.

Jason got his keys and took off for his car.

 

He burst into Nico’s room as Nico sat on his bed, obviously having cried with streaks down his pale his face.

“Jason.” He said weakly.

Jason shook his head. “I was an idiot. I am an idiot.”

Nico opened his mouth but Jason shook his head.

“No, listen. I watch cartoons on Saturday mornings with Cap’n’Crunch and I love tulips. I hate marshmallows and I spent almost my entire life trying to impress my father even though I think I knew deep down he’d never be able to love me.

“I like indie music, which I know you hate, but I do, and I know sometimes you sing it when you think I can’t hear or I’m not paying attention. I also know that your favorite color is blue because, and you said, it’s the color of my eyes. I know you hate rain because it reminds you of Bianca. I know that you read funny books when you’re sad and you hate frosting on cakes even though I think it’s an unholy travesty.”

Jason let out a breathless sigh. “The point is- I love you. I love you and I know all the important parts of you.”

Nico felt himself begin to cry. “I lied to you.”

Jason sighed. “You did what you had to. You did it because you were scared and because this world has made you have to keep yourself a secret. But, gods in heaven, Nico, I don’t want you to keep yourself a secret.”

Nico looked away. “I. . . I used to be a girl.”

Jason shook his head. “No. You weren’t. You were always a boy. Just some parts of you didn’t fit. But you belong how you are now, you have always belonged to yourself this way. And I wasn’t angry that you’re trans. I was upset you thought that after everything I wouldn’t love you no matter what.”

Nico looked up at him. “I had to hide it my whole life.”

Jason shook his head and pulled off his shirt. He then proceeded to pull off Nico’s shirt. He touched Nico’s scars hesitantly.

“This,” he inclined his head to Nico’s body, “looks exactly like mine, doesn’t it?”

Nico nodded, his eyes watering.

Jason nodded. “See, no different. Nothing. I don’t care, I don’t. You’ve always been Nico, and that is never going to change.”

Nico put his hand over Jason’s which caressed his scars. “I love you.”

Jason smiled at him. “I have always loved you.”

Jason pulled on his shirt as Nico pulled on his own and Jason held his hands.

Nico looked down at their hands and sighed, feeling his throat clear from his wet tears.

“People used to call me such nasty things, and then there were other people who thought that I was supposed to be a certain way.”

Jason shook his head. “Not anymore. No more of that.”

Nico looked up at him. “You love me this way, after everything?”

Jason gave him a tentative smile. “You love me even after I cooked for our first date didn’t you?”

Nico chuckled and gave him a small smile. “I don’t think that’s nearly as world-shattering as this.”

Jason gave him a considering look before he led him out of the room. “I dunno, that was pretty bad.”

Nico chuckled. “It was. It was a black brick of ash.”

Jason shook his head. “Exactly. So I think we’ll be okay.”

He kissed Nico’s hands, hands that had always been his no matter what anybody had said, just like all other parts of him, all parts of Nico that Jason had always loved, no matter what. He closed the door quietly behind Nico.

The universe has always been comprised of many parts. It is consistent of starbursting and supernovas and galaxies the naked eye would never understand. It is made up of stardust and the parts in all of us that we have never considered to be important. That being said, no one ever told Nico that one day he'd find a boy with blue eyes like the sky, who loved him, every part of him, just the way he was.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I didn't really incorporate the asexual part of this prompt just because I was way too tired after writing this, but this counts right??? Right??? Does anyone even read my fic??? Who fucking knows???  
> Also I am always a firm believer that Percy and Annabeth would be like Nico's fucking parents if they had had a more intimate relationship and I am hoping for it in Trials of Apollo and I love that dynamic so much and no one can tell me otherwise.  
> Also, remember, prompts are still being accepted!


	43. Everyday Words Seem To Turn Into Love Songs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, chapter title from the song La Vie En Rose cover by Daniela Andrade  
> Also, so, my sister got engaged and things have been hectic and I have been upset about her engagement (of sorts) for a lot of reasons and I needed to channel some feelings into writing so this chapter happened. We will be back to your scheduled programming soon, just give me a bit of time to get back into the swing of stuff. I'm sorry if the update after this one doesn't come as often as the others.
> 
> Or, in which the author kinda wrote Nico in her exact situation to drain out some emotions she's been feeling and just fucked everything up for the gays.

**_I've called myself young and stupid,_ **

**_But lately I feel old and desperate._ **

_****_

 

Nico woke up that morning and lay in bed for an hour. His hands behind his head and looking up at the gray ceiling he lay motionless. It was in the early dawn, the world melding from gray to indigo to bright orange mixing with rose skies as the dawn brought the sun from it’s hiding place beyond the horizon. He lay there for hours, feeling the aches of his bones and not finding the motivation to move from his position. 

His phone rang on his bedside table and he answered it.

“What’s up, Hazel?” He asked, and his voice sounded strange to himself, foreign, though he always found that he thought that about his voice.

She sighed into the receiver. “Nico. Reyna and I have been trying to get a hold of you and you weren’t answering your phone.”

Nico thought about how he’d unplugged his charger and let his phone die so he could have the excuse of not having to converse with anyone for the weekend. 

“Sorry, my phone died. What’s up?” He asked, and hoped his voice didn’t sound as emotionless as he thought it sounded.

“Well, Nico, Frank and I have big news!” She exclaimed. 

“What is it?” He asked, equal parts tired and genuinely excited.

Hazel sighed into the receiver again. “We wanted to tell you at Percy’s party this last weekend, but Frank and I are pregnant.”

It should have been a shock, but Hazel being twenty-three and they had been married for two years already, so it shouldn’t have been really. He looked around the room at the gray and the orange that had begun to bleed into the room and thought about how to make himself sound excited about something he had once wanted, but was now repulsed by. 

“Nico?” Hazel asked, after what he supposed must have been a long silence. 

“Yes?” He asked.

“Did you hear me? You’re going to be an uncle.” She said excitedly.

He forced himself to smile as though it might help him believe the lie he would tell her. 

“I’m so excited for you, Hazel. Really. I’m glad.” He said, and forced enthusiasm into his voice.

Hazel let out a nervous chuckle. “Thanks. I’m kind of scared, but this could be a great opportunity for us.”

Nico nodded to no one in particular. “Yeah.”

She hung up after they talked for a bit and when he hung up he got up and walked to the kitchen. He didn’t have the energy to cook so he sat for a while, simply sitting and drinking coffee. 

Reyna walked in. 

“Did you sleep well?”

He nodded.

She sighed and got to work making breakfast. “You know, it doesn’t help when you lie about those kinds of things.”

He didn’t say anything until finally, as she was cracking eggs he spoke. 

“Hazel’s pregnant.” He said quietly.

She paused for a moment before she turned to him. “Seriously? As in, pregnant with a baby?”

Nico nodded. 

Reyna went back to the eggs in the bowl. “How do you feel about that?”

“I’m happy for her.” Nico said automatically.

Reyna shook her head. “No, I mean, more than that. How do you really feel about it?”

Nico thought about her with her child, their entire family laughing and smiling and something struck him with hurt. He thought of her baby, smiling and laughing in her arms, and thought of the time, years ago, when he had wanted that, had wanted with the person he had loved, but then things had gone wrong and he was left with an empty apartment and an even emptier heart. He figured, if he really thought about it, he was scared, scared of resenting that small and beautiful child for all that it would symbolize for Nico, of past wants and dashed hopes and deserted dreams.

“Fine, I suppose.” He said quietly.

She stood silence, but in Reyna’s silence suspended just beneath the surface was her disbelief in his words.

She set down their food and looked at him pointedly. “What is this really about?”

He couldn’t talk about it, couldn’t talk about how Will walked out because Nico was distant, and every time Nico saw children he felt repulsed and every time he saw a couple in public he felt bitter scorn at being incapable of easy, light-hearted love. Will had been capable of it, but Nico hadn’t been good at it, and so Will walked out, and Nico sold the ring and things had gone back to the way they were before him, a time Nico couldn’t remember but had gotten acquainted with in the last year and a half. 

“Nothing.” He said, in favor of all the things he wanted to tell her, the things he was afraid to tell her because they came with their very own chorus of tears and heartbreak he could never fully forget. 

She watched him for a moment before she ate. “Remember I’m here to talk, I may have moved out, but I do want you to know I’m here for you, Nico.”

He nodded, not able to look at her.

 

Nico went to work at the deli and he put on his gloves and got to work, doing his usual checklist of things for the day when he heard the door open. 

“Hello?” A voice rang from the front of the door. 

He walked to the front to find that a blond customer was waiting patiently for him. “Sorry about that, what can I get for you?”

The man looked down at the glass case and ordered his cuts. He stood there for a moment after Nico rang him up.

“Can I help you with anything else?” Nico asked, after the man didn’t leave for a few seconds.

The man nodded and walked out. Nico shook off the weird encounter. 

 

When Hazel and Frank had their party to announce their pregnancy Nico knew he shouldn’t have gone. 

It began with Nico only able to say a short hello to Hazel before she was dragged away, the center of attention with her big news.  He sat down on the balcony of her apartment and his father walked out. For a moment they said nothing until his father spoke.

“You are excited for her, aren’t you?” His father asked.

Nico nodded. “Of course.”

“Whatever happened to Will? You used to be very infatuated with him.” His father said breezily.

Nico’s knuckles tightened on the rail of the balcony. “That’s over now.”

His father sighed. “Perhaps you will find someone. What with your sister now married and with a child on the way, maybe you shall find romance and marriage easily, and soon.”

Nico thought about the ring he’d sold and how these days he rarely thought about marriage without thinking of Will and how he’d left. 

“Yeah, maybe.” He said, only to placate his father.

After that he walked into the apartment and was bombarded by relatives asked when he’d follow in her footsteps and get married. After an hour he looked over to find Hazel occupied with a guest and he slipped out of the apartment without a goodbye. He walked out to the New York City street and walked home with his hands in his pockets. 

He thought about Will, how before they’d split there had been cracks, small cracks in their everyday life, and how maybe if Nico had tried to be less abrasive and more empathetic Will would have stayed, but Will hadn’t. The months before their break-up had been harsh silences and moving in the apartment as though they were strangers, and when Will had waited for Nico to come home from work, suitcases at his feet, Nico found himself crying. He’d loved him, loved him in his own right and with a vehement passion that was subtle. But Will couldn’t take it, couldn’t take the silences that had become normalcy, and when he walked out Nico cried. He cried, and then when his tears couldn’t come anymore he’d simple wandered around his apartment as though he was a ghost. But then tears came again. Something no one ever told Nico was that tears were the only thing that seemed endless when the time arose. 

Nico thought of how his father had been concerned, but Nico had remained private, trying to keep this last part of Will to himself. And then Reyna and Hazel had asked and asked until he admitted one day, too tired, and crying without reserve and after that he didn’t speak of it again. On the anniversary of the day Will left Nico sat in his room and looked at the invitation to Reyna and Thalia’s wedding that had arrived the very same day. Nico thought of all things he’d done with Will, things he’d not done with anyone else, and how one day perhaps he would never do them with anyone else again.

He walked alone, the January wind biting his cheeks and ears and when he got home he lay in bed again.

Later, hours after he’d left he got a phone call.

“Nico?” Hazel asked.

Nico sighed and curled in on himself. “Yes?”

“You left the party early and I didn’t get a chance to say good-bye.” She sounded hurt, and Nico felt sorry, but he also couldn’t have stayed any longer than he had. 

“Sorry, you looked busy.” He said simply.

“Nico, what’s wrong?” She asked. 

Everything. _I’m tired, I’m sad, I feel like I haven’t talked to you, really talked to you, since you got married._

“Nothing.” He said. 

“Nico.” She admonished.

He heard a knock at his door and he sighed. “Listen, Hazel, there’s someone here, I have to go.”

“We’re talking about this later.” She said firmly.

“Yes, okay, Hazel. Bye. Love you.” He said quickly.

He hung up before she could respond and he went to answer his door. Reyna stood on the other side. He let her in and she settled on the couch without a word.

She sat down on his couch and he sat across from her. 

She looked at him. “What’s wrong?”

Nico looked away from her. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Reyna shook her head. “Not an option. I’ve given you space and distance, but something is bothering you, and I want to help you. So, what’s wrong?”

Nico couldn’t put into words his regrets and his fears and his paranoia. 

He sat there for what seemed like hours, silent. Reyna settled into her seat. “We’re not avoiding this, Nico. We can’t.”

Nico sat back and looked back at her with tired eyes he had avoided in the mirror. “How do you know Thalia is the one you want to marry?”

Reyna stilled at the question. “What do you mean?”

Nico looked at her. “How do you know that you want to marry Thalia? How do you know it’s not going to end in shambles and you’ll be heartbroken?”

Reyna sighed. “I guess I just trust her enough not to do that to me. No one is certain, but with her I could be brave enough to not need certainties.”

Nico was silent for a while again. 

Reyna leaned forward and her eyes were sad. “Is this about Will?”

Nico felt a pang, the way he always did when he heard Will’s name. “No. This time it’s all me. It’s always been me.”

Reyna shook her head. “There’s nothing wrong with you.”

He looked at her. “But how can you know? How can you know that I am not going to ever be able to commit to someone, really?”

Reyna sighed. “It was just one time, Nico.”

He curled his fists and he fought the tears that always burned when he thought about it for too long. “No, it’s not just the one time. It was Will the last time, but the time before that it was Gavin, and before that James, and before that Percy.”

He looked at her, his fists curled in his lap and his eyes burned with tears. “What if I don’t know how to fix this? This thing that’s keeping me from messing up everything? I don’t want to be like this, Reyna. I don’t want to be alone. God, I don’t want to be alone.”

She put a hand over his curled fists and he nearly flinched at the contact.

She had eyes so sad Nico wasn’t sure she didn’t know exactly how he felt. “I’m sorry.”

It helped, but it didn’t fix his scars. He was thankful for it nonetheless.

 

The blond man walked into the deli three weeks after the last time Nico had seen him. 

He smiled at Nico when he walked in. “Hi.”

Nico looked at him with impassive eyes. “Hello.”

He ordered meat from the glass case and as Nico run him up the man made small talk with him.

“So where is Bacchus?” The man inquired.

Nico shrugged. “He needed help, so I’m here to help out.”

The man smiled at Nico. “You’re certainly better company than Bacchus.”

Nico snorted at the remark. “Because I’m actually sober?”

The blond man laughed and smiled at him, it seemed he prepetually smiled. “Well that definitely is part of it. I’m Jason.”

Nico looked at him and gave him a small smile, the action felt as though it didn't fit with all the impassive stares and frowns he'd gotten used to in the last year and a half. “I’m Nico.”

Jason smiled at him and nodded at him. “You looked like a Nico.”

“Do you know many Nico’s?”

Jason winked at him. “Just the one.”

He walked out of the deli and Nico watched him go, something strange stirring his stomach. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I am adding extra chapters because I am not ready to give up this fanfic yet, so I hope everyone enjoys this!   
> Also, I would really love some more prompts and AUs and stuff, as I have only one or two and I would love to have other ideas and stuff.


	44. But If I Know You I Know What You'll Do, You'll Love Me The Way You Did Once Upon A Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CHAPTER 37 REVISED AND NEW CONTENT ADDED  
> First of all DreamAsIRead is beautiful and gave me this prompt and I forgot about it like a piece of shit and I made this one nice and long and beautiful to make up for it. I regret so much because I am such a scatterbrained author and I have no idea what I am doing forgetting about these.  
> Secondly, if you submitted a prompt but never saw it written, please tell me! I really want everyone to get their little slice of satisfaction but I need to be told if I left you out! So, please, just comment and let me know, remind me what your prompt was, and I will spend literally all my time trying to make it up!  
> Anywho, summary, right.  
> Okay, in which Nico is my beautiful princess, Jason is gonna slay (literally and metaphorically) and in which I made Hera the evil one because, come on??? Seriously??? It's a no-brainer.  
> Or, in which Nico can't believe this shit, Jason is tired of all these damn fairies, and the author imagined Nico in the color changing dress and laughed for like twenty years.

_**Prompt:** Nico- a prince raised in secrecy in an enchanted forest by his three witch sisters, Bianca, Reyna, Hazel. Jason, a prince exploring the world before he's forced to settle down. Cue music- once upon a dream.... cue sad parting....cue tragic curse by evil queen/witch....cue heroic rescue and true love's kiss....and finally, what do you mean we've beeb engaged since birth?! Happily ever after_

_Tl;dr Sleeping Beauty!Nico, basically?_

* * *

  


It started with Hera. Really no one should have been surprised. Hera wore dark cloaks and gave mortals looks of bitter scorn. She was powerful, but as much as she was powerful, she was also dangerous and evil. Now, maybe Nico missed the memo for fairytale rules, but generally, to avoid death, you have to act polite with the evil, powerful sorceress. It was kind of like kids who were kind to the bully on the playground to avoid being hurt. It’s also like giving candy to a baby to avoid it screaming in your face. Nico thinks that particular analogy is very fitting, considering the tantrum that Hera throws.

That being said, Hades didn’t follow that rule.

Now, Nico wasn’t one for the once upon a time type of tale, something very outplayed about that. That being said. . .

 

Once upon a time there was a king. King Hades, to be exact. He ruled over a kingdom fairly. It was his opinion that an orderly and happy kingdom began with fairness and justice. He was not unpleasant, but not exactly amiable. In his early days, before his first wife, he’d been crass, closed off, distant. When Marie Levesque married him, it had not been the best circumstances. She’d been greedy, selfish, thinking only of the wealth Hades could offer her. She’d given him a daughter, but when it became clear that all she had wanted was his kingdom, Hades had kept the girl and banished her, had his fairy Alecto curse her. He stayed away from marriage for several years after that. Unable to care for Hazel, that small girl he’d named, he gave her to the fae people. She was four, and she’d gone willingly. Hades’ only comfort came from her coming back one day.

Hades remained cold and distant from all his court for years, until he met Maria in a market one day. She was beautiful, eyes shaped like almonds, and her eyes so kind he’d never seen anything like them. When Maria married him, a peasant girl everyone had told him had married him for his kingdom, he’d changed. She was kind, private, and above all she loved Hades for reasons no one understood. Days wore on with only the two of them ruling the kingdom and when she gave him a daughter he’d been ecstatic. The baby girl was magical, the fairies having had to take her away because she’d been born so weak. She was beautiful, and when they’d had to let her go with the fae people like his first daughter they took comfort only in the fact that she’d come back to them healthy. Maria named her Bianca.

But things rarely last in their happy world and when Maria had given birth to a child ten years later, it had been a boy. He was healthy, practically glowing, but Maria hadn’t survived the birth, and she’d bled out before Hades could call for anyone to help. The baby boy cried and as Maria held him in her hands she simply whispered one word before her life gave out.

“Nico.”

Giving into pressure, a month later he’d remarried. He loved Persephone, loved her and found her to be kind in her own rights, but he grieved and he grieved silently. Every time he looked at that baby boy in the cradle he was reminded of kind, almond-shaped, brown eyes.

Due to the grieving process, Hades hadn’t been able to give his son a proper introduction, one fit for the only prince of the kingdom. But three months after his son’s birth he’d announced to the kingdom and the fae people that he would cordially invite all to the celebration. He hadn’t invited Hera, her cloaks of midnight terrifying him, and he feared perhaps she might kill him. He’d feared that perhaps the only living memory of his most beloved wife might be taken from him.

Nico was never told about the entirety of the celebration of his birth. He would never know about what people thought of the food, or what new mistress Jupiter had at the time, but he could tell everyone the main reason why no one had remembered any of that.

 

Everyone in the dining hall was having a jolly time when three balls of light had flittered into the hall. Hades looked up from where he was watching his son in his cradle to find his two daughters standing beside another girl. Bianca looked older, she couldn’t have been more than twelve, and her hair was tied in a braid that was woven with flowers. She looked nearly the spitting image of Maria, and Hades nearly forgot how much he’d missed his daughter. Hazel already fourteen with beautiful curls falling around her face, Hades having missed her as well. They both exuded an aura of health and wellness. He gave them each a small smile.

“Daughters. It has been some time.” They visited when Maria was alive, though not nearly as often as they had liked.

Bianca looked at him sadly. “I heard of what happened to mother. I am so sorry, father.”

He shook his head. “Do not be. She had a great many years with me and I with her. Would you like to see your brother?”

Hazel and Bianca gave each other wide smiles before they walked to the cradle. The girl that had accompanied them walked beside them.

Bianca and Hazel stood by each side of the crib and looked at their little brother in the cradle. Persephone and Hades watched them in contentment and the girl stood at the foot of the crib. Little Nico let out a cry but Bianca put her hand on his forehead.

“Be silent, Nico. Everything is all right. Hazel, Reyna, and I are here for you.” She said softly.

Little Nico took her hand and held on as though his life depended on it.

Hazel smiled at Bianca. “He likes you.”

Bianca looked down at her brother and felt warmth pool in her stomach, an affection for the small boy already blooming in her chest. She turned to Reyna.

“Isn’t he beautiful?”

Reyna gave the boy a find stare. “I must admit, he is quite beautiful.”

They stepped back from the crib, watching him closely, and were silent as Hades greeted King Jupiter, who had just arrived. Hades led him to the crib.

“This is my son, Nico.”

King Jupiter walked up to the crib, his son in hand. The boy, Jason, no older than three, and he peered into the crib.

“That’s him?” He asked to his father.

Jupiter nodded sternly. “Yes. You shall be married one day.”

Jason’s face twisted in disgust and he walked away, having been distracted by other little princes on the hall.

Jupiter walked away and Hazel, Reyna, and Bianca were around him once more. Bianca looked at her father.

“Reyna, Hazel, and I would like to bestow gifts upon him. Is that all right, father?”

Hades nodded.

Hazel pulled out a wand and the magic that twirled around her was golden, much like her own eyes.

“I give him the gift of courage. May he draw strength from within in times when it most dire.”

She waved her wand and the golden magic circled Nico. He reached out with hands and tried to catch the golden magic in his hands and Hazel laughed.

Reyna pulled out her hand and her magic swirled a bright violet color. She smiled down at little Nico di Angelo in his crib.

“I give him the gift of resilience. May he find the will to fight against the odds when the time draws near in which he must.”

Bianca smiled down at her brother and waved her wand, green magic spilling out and surrounding the baby boy. He laughed and giggled and she looked down, thinking long and hard of what his last gift should be.

She looked down at him and smiled. “I give him the gift of selflessness. May he commit to making the ultimate sacrifice when it is demanded of him.”

Just as the magic was bestowed upon him the entire dining hall erupted in lightning and a clapping of thunder erupted as Hera emerged in the middle of the hall in a burst of Greek fire. Everyone began to scramble, eager to run away from her, but Hades’ guards ran up to her, spears at the ready. She waved her hand, sending all the of the guards flying and some of them screaming about the Greek fire that had begun to burn them alive.

“Hera.” Hades growled.

Hera looked at him with a cold smile.

“Hades. It seems I hadn’t gotten my invitation to your celebration.”

Bianca, Hazel, and Reyna stood in front of the crib, ready to protect Nico from the wrath of Hera. Hades curled his fists and Persephone put a hand on his shoulder.

“No. We did not send you an invitation.”

Hera laughed, a cold, cutting sound like a crow. “You seem to be mistaken, Hades. No one had ever crossed me.”

Hades took a step forward. “I am not letting you anywhere near my son.”

Her eyes shifted quickly to the craddle where Nico had begun to cry. She let out another laugh and she grew, ten feet tall, and Greek fire lapped at the edges of her cloaks. She pointed a finger little Nico in his crib and her black magic began to slither forward. Nico cried louder once the magic had begun to consume him.

“For your mistake, Hades, your son shall suffer. Before his sixteenth birthday shall come to pass, Nico di Angelo shall prick his finger on a spindle, and die!”

Hades looked toward his son to find the boy had begun to thrash and cry loudly. Hades ran to him and cradled him to his chest. Nico didn’t stop crying and Hades looked at Hera.

“What have you done to him?!”

She grinned at him, a smile so cold the room seemed to get darker just by the appearance of it. “I am showing you what happens when you cross me, Hades. “You made the mistake of slighting me, and now your son shall die for it.”

Hades looked at his guards. “Get her!”

They seemed to poised to strike at her, but she curled her cloak around her and in a pillar of Greek fire and lightning and darkness she was gone. The room was silent except for Nico’s crying. Hades fell to his knees and he sobbed as he rocked his child back and forth, trying to calm himself and his son. Persephone looked at him sadly, putting a hand on his shoulder that he took comfort in, but he could only imagine his son, barely just born and already destined to die.

Bianca walked forward and with Hazel and Reyna. Hades looked up from his position on the floor of the dining room. Bianca looked at them both before she turned to her father.

“Father, we can save Nico. We have the power.”

Hades looked up at them. “You can get rid of the curse?”

Bianca shook her head. “No, we can not take it away. A curse forged of pure hate is unbreakable. But we could perhaps try something else.”

Hades nodded quickly. “Anything. Anything at all. Please just save him.”

Bianca took a step back, nodded to both Hazel and Reyna, and their magic began to spill out of the ends of their wands and blanket Nico, who was still crying.

They spoke in unison. “Before his sixteenth birthday shall come to pass, Nico di Angelo shall prick his finger on a spindle and send the kingdom into an eternal slumber.”

Hades looked down to find Nico had stopped crying and he looked at Bianca.

“Will that work?”

Hazel gave him a sad, but slightly hopeful look. “We have to hope that it will.”

Reyna took a step forward. “We must take him away from here, your highness. Hera will send spies and others to check on the boy and attempt to kill him.”

Hades looked down at the little boy, eyes wide, brown and almond-shaped like his wife, the wife he missed so dearly. He’d miss looking at his son everyday, to remind himself of all the sacrifices he’d made to be where he was.

He looked at them with a pained look. “I cannot part with him. He is my only son.”

Bianca looked at him. “He’ll be in more danger here than if we took him away. Father, you must think of what is best for him.”

Nico squirmed and Hades thought of what Maria would have done if she’d been here to help him. Hades felt himself cry, stray tears coming down.

“He’s all I have left of your mother.”

Bianca took a step forward and put a hand on his arm and another hand on Nico’s forehead. “He needs to be protected. He’ll come back within sixteen years. You have to trust us.”

He shook his head. “I will miss him dearly.”

But he knew he’d have to give her the bundled boy, the only hope he had of living. Bianca took him and she looked at Hazel and Reyna. Reyna waved her wand and suddenly Hazel, Bianca, and Reyna were all wearing cloaks. They stole away from the castle, it already having become night out. They ran silently, Nico held close to Bianca’s chest. Nico whimpered as they ran.

She looked down at him. “It’ll be okay, little Nico. I’ll protect you.”

Hazel looked behind her at the kingdom she’d never be able to return to for the next sixteen years.

Reyna looked at her as they ran. “Don’t look back and you won’t miss it.”

Hazel nodded, keeping her pace.

Back at the castle little Jason and his friend Perseus stood beside Jason’s father. He looked up at Jupiter.

“Where is baby Nico going?” Jason asked.

Jupiter sighed. “Somewhere safe, Hades should hope.”

Jason looked back at the doors that were left open by the three fairies in their haste.

 

Nico was walking through the woods the day of his sixteenth birthday. He was humming something he’d heard Bianca play at the piano earlier that week as he collected flowers in his basket.

“I hope those are for me.” He heard someone say behind him.

He knew that voice. He turned and gave Jason a smile.

“That’s very presumptuous of you. They’re not, by the way. I suspect Reyna, Hazel, and Bianca all asked me to go pick flowers because they’re going to surprise me with something.”

Jason smiled at him. “Well perhaps we should let them do with a few more minutes.”

He leaned into kiss Nico and Nico smiled into the kiss. When Jason pulled away he rested his forehead against Nico’s.

“Happy birthday, my love.”

Nico sighed. “You know, I nearly feel bad for the fact that I haven’t told my sisters about you. It’s been a year and I’m afraid they won’t take too kindly to us running away together.”

Jason shook his head. “We don’t have to, Nico. We could stay in the cottage, just us and the forest.”

Nico laughed. “You’d hate the cottage. I just want us to start somewhere new. See the world together.”

Jason smiled at him as he wrapped an arm around Nico’s waist. “I’d follow you to the ends of the earth.”

Nico nodded. “So then we shall run away together. You will meet me in these woods at midnight, won’t you?”

Jason smiled at him, excitement causing his stomach to flutter and twist. “Of course.”

“Nico!” He heard Hazel call.

“Coming!” He called.

He turned to Jason and gave him a lingering kiss. “Soon. I love you, Jason.”

Jason held his hand. “And I love you.”

 

Hazel looked at her cookbook.

“Hmmm, oh this is all very confusing.”

Reyna rolled her eyes from where she stood as Bianca’s mannequin in the living room. “Nico’s gone, I don’t know we don’t just use magic like we always do when he’s gone.”

Bianca sighed. “Hold still.”

Hazel looked at Reyna. “Because today Hera will be looking for him, and even the slightest bit of magic detected will cause her to know he’s alive.”

Reyna crossed her arms, which jostled the suit Bianca was sewing for Nico and she shot Reyna a glare, who didn’t seem to notice.

“If you ask me, all we need to do is be perfectly careful and we can make that idiotic cake and this suit.”

Bianca looked down at the sewing instructions and Reyna sighed.

“Do you know how to sew?”

Bianca looked up at her. “It can’t be that hard if the mortals do it.”

Reyna took off the suit and conjured up an actual mannequin. She waved her wand and in a flurry of sparkling violet magic, a fully tailored tux emerged on the mannequin.

Hazel seemed to be folding in eggs into the dough, quite literally, and Reyna heard the shells crack. Hazel pulled away from it.

“Oh dear, that can’t be good.”

Reyna waved her wand again and the cake began to form itself. Hazel watched it and just shook her head in disapproval. Over where Reyna stood next to Bianca, Bianca looked at the tux and waved her wand.

“It’s nicer as an olive green.”

Reyna scoffed. “It’s better as a nice black.”

She waved her wand and the color changed back.

Bianca waved her wand and the color changed again. “No, it’s better olive green.”

They began to change it, firing magic from across the room at each other until Hazel stopped them. But outside, perched on a branch a little ways away a crow had already seen the magic, and was on his way back to his master.

Hazel sighed and took both of their wands.

“Hey!” They said in unison.

Hazel sighed and looked at each of them with a firm glare that kept them from protesting further.

“Nico’s been gone for a while. It’s time for us to tell him.”

Bianca seemed to sober at the thought. “I’m not sure he’ll like the fact that we kept this from him.”

Reyna sighed and looked at her. “We didn’t have a choice.”

Hazel nodded. “Being that as it is, we need to tell him and take to Hades. Hades has already sent us the letter, telling us he prepared the hall for the wedding today.”

 

Nico walked into the cottage and smiled at them all. “Hello everyone!”

He said it happily. It seemed to Bianca that these days Nico was constantly in high spirits and it made her hopefully that he would remain that way after they told him the news.

He hummed happily as they ate cake and when he saw the suit he turned to them.

“Is that for me? What would I need that thing for?”

Reyna, Hazel, and Bianca looked at one another.

Bianca stepped forward. “Nico we have something to tell you.”

Nico smiled at her. “And so do I. I’ve met someone.”

Bianca froze, her heart beating in double time.

“Met someone?”

Nico nodded. “He’s a boy from a far away kingdom, and he wanted to get married.”

Bianca shook her head. “Nico-”

“Now I know that it may seem crazy, Bianca. But he’s visited me in these woods for a year. And I believe he loves me, I truly do.” He interrupted.

“Nico, you’re engaged.” Hazel said quietly.

Nico turned to her. “What?”

Reyna nodded. “It’s true. You’re King Hades’ only son. When you were born you were promised to marry the son of King Hades’ most powerful ally.”

Nico thought of Jason, alone in the woods when Nico would not come. “I-”

Bianca moved to put a hand on his shoulder. “Nico, I’m sorry.”

Nico shook his head. “No, no. This can’t be happening.”

Hazel sighed. “Nico, I’m sorry, but you must. It’s for the good of the kingdom.”

Nico looked out at the forest that lay beyond the cottage, where Jason would wait, but Nico would never come. He knew even before he said the words that he would go, even if it broke his heart.

 

Jason rode through the forest on his horse, his heart light and happy, when he arrived to the gates of King Hades’ kingdom where he’d been summoned.

Hades greeted him alongside his father. “Ah, prince Jason. I see you have arrived just in time.”

Jason looked at his father with a look of confusion. “In time for what?”

“Why, for your fianceé, of course. He shall be arriving with his escorts in just a short time.”

Jason shook his head in confusion. “Fianceé? Father, I am leaving today.”

Jupiter scoffed. “Leaving? Boy, please, be serious. You were engaged to the prince of this castle since his birth, and here you shall stay. It is your duty.”

Jason took a step back. “No, I-I cannot.”

Jupiter gave him a sharp look. “And why is that?”

Jason shook his head, trying to fight the feeling of treading water that had suddenly come over him.

“I am in love with another, father.”

Hades gave him a look and Jupiter gave him a cold stare. “Marriage has very little to do with love, Jason. You shall marry the prince. That is an order.”

Jason stormed off, taking his horse to the stables, and thinking of Nico, all alone in the woods, waiting for a prince that would never come.

 

Nico arrived to find his father standing beside Jupiter when he got out of the carriage. Hades smiled at him.

Nico di Angelo stood tall, nearly six feet and his shoulders broad. His hair was clean-cut and his skin had a dark olive complexion from days spent out in the sun. He looked handsome, and exactly how Hades had imagined him. He looked like Bianca, like their mother, the woman Hades missed with every passing day.

“My son.”

Nico looked at him for a moment before he breezed past him, upset obvious in his eyes.

Hades turned to Bianca, Hazel, and Reyna.

Hazel gave him a sad look. “I am sorry, father. He is very upset.”

Bianca looked at her father. “We must speak in private.”

Hades lead her away and when they were confined to his study, just him and his daughter he turned to her.

“What happened with Nico?” He asked her.

Her eyes shifted nervously, but also sadly. “Nico has found someone. He’s spoken of marrying this boy.”

Hades frowned. “And just who is this boy?”

Bianca shook her head. “I don’t know, father. I am sorry.”

Hades sat down on a chair and sighed. “No, it is not your fault. It can’t be helped I suppose. He will have to marry Jason, though. Or Jupiter will certainly not approve.”

Bianca sighed and sat across from her father. “We kept him in our sights nearly all the time, father.”

Hades nodded. “As well you should have. We are not out of the woods yet with Hera.”

Bianca nodded. “Reyna and Hazel are looking after him as we speak.”

Hades nodded. “Please go check up on him.”

Bianca nodded and went to the tower where Nico resided. When she reached the tower she went to the top and found Reyna and Hazel standing in front of the door.

“What are you both doing out here?”

Hazel sighed and looked at Reyna. “He was upset, and asked for a few minutes alone. So we promised that we’d stay right here.”

Bianca looked at them with wide eyes and Reyna seemed to realize the problem.

“Oh no.”

Hazel realized it too late and they burst into the room to find it empty.

“Fuck.” Bianca said, her heart dropping.

 

Nico was sitting at the boudoir in his room as he cried, wishing he could see Jason one last time before being married to a stranger he didn’t even know the name of. As he looked down listlessly he heard something in his ear.

“It’s okay, Nico.” The whisper came.

He turned around to find Jason standing in the middle of the room. To anyone else, they would have noticed the inhuman glow of his skin, but to Nico he looked as normal as he had when Nico had seen him earlier that day.

He pulled Jason into a hug. “I was so afraid I would never see you again.”

Jason pulled away from him. “Come Nico, at the top of the tower is a room with a secret passage so we can run away.”

Nico nodded. “Yes, yes, let’s go.”

Jason took his hand and the way behind the hearth disappeared in a flurry of Greek fire. But Nico hadn’t seen it, he’d been too enchanted by Jason, so beautiful and vibrant. Hera had designed this Jason in perfect fashion.

He pulled Nico up the secret stairwell and Nico followed him without question until they arrived to a cold and damp room.

Bianca, Reyna, and Hazel all burst into the room and when they saw the lingering specks of fairy dust on the hearthplace Bianca waved her wand to show the staircase and they all ran up the stairs, trying to save Nico.

Nico looked at Jason and smiled. “We’ll be happy, won’t we?”

Jason smiled brightly at him. “Of course, Nico. Now, you have to open the door to this secret passage.”

The passage doorknob was a mirage, the true form was a spindle, with the prick poised to stab his finger the moment he touched it. Hera watched from the shadows, an insidious amusement in her eyes. Nico nodded and reached for it.

The moment his finger pricked itself and he felt over in pain Bianca, Hazel, and Reyna all burst into the room.

“No!” Bianca cried.

Reyna caught Nico before he could fall.

Before he fell into deep sleep his whispered one word.

“Jason.”

Hazel’s eyes widened. “The prince! We have to get the prince.”

 

Jason was brushing his horse when Hera emerged in the corner of the stall.

“Sorry, are you lost?” He asked her.

She looked at him with eyes he barely remembered, something about their emptiness bothering him.

“No. I have come to take what is rightfully mine.”

He watched her step into the light and he knew that face, her vicious glare etched into his young mind and he tried to run, but she caught him and before Reyna and Hazel could even reach him he was being carted off by Hera, tied and gagged.

When Hazel and Reyna looked up at the sky to find Hera flying away they cursed. Hera ran her hand in the air as she flew past the kingdom’s borders and giant walls of thickets of roses emerged from the ground. Jason thrashed in Hera’s arms, but she silenced him with a spell and he immediately fell limp into her hands.

Bianca came running right after Reyna and Hazel as they looked around and watched the entire kingdom around them fall into eternal slumber.

 

They set Nico down in his soft down bed and left him there, sure Hera would assume he’d been left to sleep for all eternity.

Bianca turned to Reyna and Hazel. “We have to find Jason. If he doesn’t kiss Nico before the sun sets then the kingdom could be stuck like this forever.”

Hazel looked distressed. “What if Jason can’t undo the spell?”

Reyna shook her head. “No, we have to hope that Jason will save him.”

They flew for hours, looking everywhere for Hera’s lair until eventually, at late afternoon they found her tower in the jagged crevice of a cliff. They turned small, sneaking with the utmost care as they walked through the vents easily and finally found Jason bound in a cage hovering above a pit of green Greek fire.

“We’ll never be able to get him out of there with all that attention on him.” Bianca said.

Reyna shook her head. “We must find a way. We don’t have much time.”

Hazel looked around at the ugly monsters dancing and taking stabs at Jason. He looked weak in the cage, bruised, and one of his eyes was swollen.

She turned to Bianca and Reyna. “Both of you have to conjure a weapon and shield for him. I will go over and smash the cage. He will have mere moments before she notices he’s escaping. We have to act fast.”

Bianca and Reyna nodded firmly and Hazel flitted over and she used her wand and blasted the chains of the cage before thrusting it against the stone walls of the cold castle fortress. Jason grunted as the monsters, still shocked by the sudden movements, stood in shock. As soon as Hazel turned to her full human size they began to growl and scream.

She kneeled beside him, Jason not moving.

“Jason, you must get up!”

He looked up at her sadly. “Nico’s gone, and now Hera’s killed my fianceé. I can’t go on.”

Hazel cursed. “Jason, get up! I can only restore your health if you have the will to live.”

Jason looked at her and she was thankful that Reyna and Bianca had emerged to fight off the monsters that charged at them.

“Hazel, hurry!” Bianca shouted as she sent a curse toward a rapid centaur.

Reyna huffed and lifted Hazel off the ground. “You handle the monsters. You cast spells faster than me. I will handle Jason.”

Hazel looked at her. “You have to hurry, he’s weak and cannot fight Hera, which he will certainly have to.”

She nodded and turned to Jason.

She bent down and looked at him. “Jason, listen carefully to me, you have to get up. Nico is alive and well, in fact, if I am correct, which I always am, you’re engaged to him. He’s waiting for you, and he’ll die of you don’t save him.”

Jason looked up at her. “Nico’s in trouble?”

Reyna nodded. “Now more than ever. So I need you to pull yourself together and fight for him. Fight for him like you’ve never fought for anything else in your life before.”

Jason nodded. “For Nico.”

Reyna nodded and when Jason stood weakly she used her wand to heal him. He stood taller a moment later, his face no longer marred with bruises and cuts. Bianca turned to him.

“Nice of you to join us. Here’s a sword.”

She tossed the sword, which he caught, and Reyna handed him a shield.

He turned to them all. “We have to get out of here.”

Reyna nodded. “We could force our way to the front. We have to do it quickly. Hera will be due back any minute.”

They all nodded and forced their way through the crowd of monsters. They slashed and they cut and Jason fought with a vitality he’d never experienced. He thought of Nico, hurt or harmed somewhere and how much he wanted to save him.

When they reached the entrance there was a horse corralled there and Jason hopped on the horse as Bianca, Hazel, and Reyna flitted beside him, their wings now visible.

He forced the horse to run fast, doing double time in order to get to the kingdom in time.

“Hera will be waiting for you.” Reyna said from beside him.

Jason gripped his sword and shield tight.

“And I’ll be ready for her.”

 

When Jason arrived to the thickets of roses he charged right in, some of them cutting him. But he fought against that pain, knowing that Nico needed him. And if being a prince had taught Jason anything, it was that a prince made sacrifices that he had to for those he loved.

Above him in the sky Hera laughed maniacally. But when Jason finally thrashed and cut and found himself on the other side of the thicket she screamed in anger. She screamed and Hazel, Reyna, and Bianca flew quickly to go defend Nico. Hera morphed before Jason’s eyes into a giant black dragon that spewed Greek fire.

She cackled and her maw was large and gaping. “You think you can defeat me, Jason Grace? Do you think you’ll be able to save your beloved prince from my wrath?!”

Jason lunged at her with his sword but she smacked him away and he stumbled. The ground began to crack under the pressure of her form. He got up, the horse having long deserted him. He was on his feet, nothing but a sword and his shield to protect himself.

Hera laughed again, the sound shaking the earth like thunder.

“Did you ever think love would save you, poor little prince? You shall die, and then I shall kill little, poor, defenseless Nico di Angelo.”

Jason got up and he charged out of rage. She knocked him away with her wing, sending flying over the edge of a crevice made by her wrath and magic.

She looked down at him and even in her dragon form she seemed to sneer at him.

“Time for you to die, hero.”

But he looked down at the fire that burned and he looked back up at her, at the sky, and something in his bones began to flood him with strength. He felt the feeling of strength and determination flood him. He thought all the times he’d danced with Nico along the creek by the cottage and how he’d told Nico he loved him and how they picked berries and never in his life had Jason met someone he’d loved more than he had loved Nico.

He gripped the cliffs and pulled himself out. He struggled and his breathing came labored, but he got up and in her shock Hera had stood still for a moment. Jason lept and lunged at her, sword poised to go straight through her heart.

The sword dug through her dragon’s pelt and she screamed. She thrashed in futility and her limbs began to become consumed by the Greek fire she had favored. She shrieked and screaming until eventually she erupted in a pillar of smoke. Once he was sure she’d been fully vanquished he turned and Reyna stood a bit away from him. She waved for him to follow her.

“Come, Jason! We only have five minutes before sunset!”

They ran, Jason taking off after her. He ran up the tower and into the bedroom where Nico slept peacefully in his bed.

“He’s a prince.” Jason said quietly.

Bianca gave him a sheepish look. “To be quite fair he just found out today as well. Please don’t hold it against him.”

Jason looked down at Nico. Nico with eyes that shimmered when he laughed and grew cold when he was sad. His nose was dotted with freckles Jason had once promised he’d kiss every single one. And his skin, so tanned and smooth, seemed to glow in health with his black hair brushing his neck. He was dressed in a formal suit like the one Jason was wearing, though Jason’s was covered in soot, blood, and sweat.

“I could never hold a thing against him.”

Jason leaned down and kissed Nico softly on his lips, lips he had tasted before, right after they’d eaten strawberries, and after they’d eaten bread or drank wine. Lips he’d known from the moment they had touched his nearly a year ago.

Nico opened his eyes and upon seeing Jason he smiled wide. “Jason. You’re here. It all seemed to be a dream.”

Jason shook his head. “No, it is not. I’m here, and I will never leave your side again.”

Hazel, Reyna, and Bianca smiled at each other before Bianca stepped forward.

She cleared her throat. “It would seem you must, as you must get ready. Jason you are to be wedded today, as well as Nico.”

Nico looked at them with distressed eyes. “But the curse! It’s broken! Surely-”

“I wouldn’t argue with Bianca, Nico.” Reyna said firmly.

Jason left the room without a word and Nico sighed sadly. “All that work, and for nothing.”

Bianca gave her sisters a playful look as they led him down the stairs to the dining hall where Nico would be married to Jason just as they had been introduced in that very same place.

Hazel sighed happily. “Oh, I wouldn’t say for nothing.”

They opened the doors, and in the grandeur of the dining hall, standing right beside a minister, Nico’s father, and Jupiter, stood Jason, looking almost immaculate even given that Nico had seen him only five minutes ago.

Nico ran to him and Jason ran to meet him halfway in the large and grand dining hall.

Nico looked at him. “How did you manage to change so quickly?”

Jason laughed. “Magic, if that could be believed.”

Nico turned to his sisters who waved at him with cheeky smiles on their faces.

“You know, it definitely could be.”

Jason laughed and pulled him in for a kiss. Nico melted into the kiss and when Jason pulled away he smiled down at Nico.

“You know, I am engaged to a prince.” Jason said.

Nico laughed. “Oh really? And is this prince amiable?”

Jason nodded and leaned in to kiss him between sentences. “Yes. Very much so. He is also brave, and brilliant, and incredibly handsome.”

Nico laughed and leaned into Jason’s embrace. “Really? Why what a coincidence. I happen to know a prince of that very same description. I happen to be engaged to him as well.”

Jason laughed and leaned into the embrace and swayed them lightly as music began to play.

“I am glad it worked out in the end.” He said.

Nico kissed him in favor of responding.

 

Hades walked over to Bianca as she watched Jason and Nico dance to the music along with the other couples.

“I daresay he is happy. What happened to his attitude from this morning?”

Bianca chuckled and turned to her father with a smile. “I believe it was a happy accident that the man who stole Nico’s heart in the woods was one Jason Grace.”

Hades chuckled alongside her and then he sighed, thinking of Maria, and how when Nico smiled he looked just like his mother.

“Life does have its peculiar wonders, Bianca. We shall thank them for this small blessing."

 

Reyna leaned in with a mirthful look on her face. “Should we tell him that perhaps we knew he loved Jason since the very moment they met? That we knew he met Jason before at all? Although to be fair we hadn’t been sure.”

Hazel watched her brother dance with his husband, neither of them aware of the people around them, but looking for all the world like a couple most in love.

Hazel shook her head, a smile still on her face. “No. I think perhaps that is a secret we can keep to ourselves.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed it around a little, because I could never see Nico falling in love with someone just right off the bat, so I tweeked this just a lil bit. I hope everyone liked it!
> 
> Okay but seriously I am so sorry if anyone submitted something and I never got to it! Like, seriously, please tell me if that happened, tell me the prompt you gave me, and I will make up for it. I will even add chapters if I fucking have to.  
> That being said, new prompts are also still being accepted and you all should not feel discouraged from submitting things! Feel free to submit whatever you want!  
> Have a cosmic day!


	45. We're Not Damaged Goods, Maybe We're Just Lonely People

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay so this prompt is by Keen Observer! Also, to all my readers, all three of you, I am so sorry I haven't been updating like I usually do! I have been working and I really want to do a good job and I've got a baby shower to plan so I just have loads of things going on. Just bare with me please! Also, user, IAmNobody, does this prompt also count for the one you mentioned with Extrovert!Nico and Introvert!Jason??? Bc once again I really feel like it should.  
> To KeenObserver, sorry this one is so short! I wish I could do more, but it's eleven where I am and I just want to rest, but wanted to give you a nice snippet of the gays! Enjoy!
> 
> Or, in which Nico is the suave one here and maybe Jason is left a lil in the dust  
> Or, the once fic where the author projects her home life onto Jason and things got just a lil too real

_**Prompt:** Can you do a college AU where Jason is newly out of the closet and awkward and pines after Nico who is super popular and confident and Jason thinks Nico's light-years out of his league? Maybe have Nico blatantly flirt with Jason but Jason thinks Nico's just being friendly (until the end, at least)? Mutual pining gives me life!_

 

* * *

Jason wasn’t sure why he’d let Percy talk him into this.

Though like most things that are dangerously stupid, this was completely Percy’s idea once again.  
He stood with Percy and Annabeth right outside that stone and brick apartment in Uptown New York City. His father’s house. That day Jason wore what he always wore, his jeans, kicks, and an orange shirt with a purple sweatshirt. He’d convinced himself that if he wore normal clothes his father might even believe that he was normal.  
“You can do this.” Percy said quietly.  
Jason felt the sweat in his palms and he looked between them. “I just came out to our friends last week. Maybe this is too soon.”  
Annabeth shook her head. “No, you have to do this.”  
Her eyes portrayed a kindness and firmness he tried to take to heart. A lot of times Jason had the courage to do so many things, but to tell his father that he was queer, that took a different kind of courage. It required that the tightness in his throat and that sickening ball of dread in his stomach stop tightening itself.  
He let out a breath before he turned to them. “Give me a few moments.”  
He walked up those steps slowly, toward something he wasn’t sure he even wanted. But he’d been gone for six years, no longer having depended on his father for him. He opened the door and walked in, Percy and Annabeth disappearing behind the oak door with frosted glass.  
He turned to find his father had been waiting for him.  
“You’re late.” His father said.  
Jason tried to ignore the feeling of the remark, made to make him feel small.  
“I was having trouble doing this.”  
His father gave him a confused look. “What is it, Jason? You called me asking me to meet you.”  
Jason wrung his hands and breathed deep, taking the oxygen and converting it into the courage he needed. He looked up and stood straight. He straightened his back and looked at his father right in the eye. In this, Jason refused to be smaller, refused to cower for this.  
“I’m bisexual.”  
He said it clear, with a tone that implied there would be no arguing, no fighting, so debate as to whether or not it was true.  
Jason looked at his father who had turned red, and he knew that his father was angry. He took a step back to the door.  
“This isn’t up for debate. I just wanted you to know.”  
He walked to the door and when he reached for the handle his father spoke.  
“If you walk out now, I never want to see you again.”  
Jason closed his eyes and tried to hold back the sharp sting of hurt.  
He turned to his father. “I guess this is goodbye then, father.”  
And he walked out. He was proud of himself for not slamming the door either. He calmly exited out of the life of his father, something he’d relish in later.  
But right now he was running down the steps, walking briskly past Percy and Annabeth and hyperventilating. They followed after him as he sat on a bench in the park a few blocks away. He sat down and he looked up at them both with wide eyes.  
“I can’t believe you both convinced me to do that!” He panicked.  
Percy and Annabeth turned to each other with smiles and chuckled. They sat on either side of him.  
“It’s good, Jason. This is good for you.” Annabeth said.  
Jason looked back in the direction of his father’s building. It wasn’t even a particular sentimental place. He’d grown up there, sure, but Jason had left when he was sixteen, and by then there’d been terse silences and sometimes he’d look at himself in the mirror and find himself collapsing in on himself, his feelings and his decisions, all caving in and creating a shell. He’d left, and after that it was easy. But it wasn’t easier to get out of that shell. It was the residual after effects of a life lived in secret that kept him hiding.  
But last week that changed.  
Percy and Annabeth had looked at him and they took his hands and he stood beside them as he sat down his friends and explained everything. He’d been nervous at first, because being gay hadn’t been a problem, Jason’s friends had accepted Nico without question, but Jason was bisexual, always on the cusp of being capable of being normal, but never quite there and excluded from both worlds.  
But Thalia had smiled at him in pride. Leo had given Piper twenty dollars with a curse and Percy and Annabeth were with him now, sitting as he calmed himself down.  
Annabeth put a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?”  
Jason nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be okay. I feel so weird.”  
Percy sighed. “At least you got that over with.”  
Jason chuckled. “It was harder than admitting to my college football team.”  
Percy laughed and then Annabeth joined in. They laughed for a while, and while Jason certainly wasn’t as confident in his decision he knew that if he felt the way he did in that moment, light and free, he would learn to be.

So, to note, Jason is kind of in love with Nico. Nico is absurdly handsome and some days, when the light hits him just right, he’d even call Nico beautiful. Nico was subtly beautiful. He was the kind of beautiful Jason had always sort of overlooked. Piper had the same look, but after kissing her for the first time he’d realized she was different kinds of beautiful. Nico was constantly surrounded by people. In any instance there were would be at least two people with Nico. And when Jason asked around there was always a rumor that Nico had been dating someone new. It was never the same person twice, and never for very long.  
Jason also liked Nico because once he’d heard him recite Richard Siken in their lit class and Nico had been so eloquent and so clear in his speech that the words he’d read had sent a chill up Jason’s spine when he’d looked directly at Jason. The words hung suspended in the air as Nico walked back to his seat in the lecture hall. He’d had passing conversations with Nico, ones that never lasted more than ten minutes, there’d been ones at parties, and at study sessions where their friends had mingled, but every time without fail Nico had been surrounded by people. And there were moments where they locked eyes and Jason could tell that perhaps Nico hadn’t exactly loved being surrounded by people, but it was better than being alone. That was something that Jason definitely understood.  
So it all started on a Wednesday. Jason was working in a study room at the library when he heard the door to the study room open. Unaccompanied by anyone else Nico poked his head in.  
“Is there space for one more?” Nico asked.  
Jason looked at the six empty chairs and back at Nico. “Yeah. Definitely.”  
Nico carried his textbooks and bag into the room. They sat in silence as Nico set himself up across from Jason. Jason waited for someone to come in for a few minutes. It was rare, almost impossible for Jason to find Nico alone.  
“No friends today?” Jason asked quietly, tentatively.  
Nico looked up from where he was highlighting something. “Oh, uh, yeah. Not today. I needed a break.”  
Jason nodded.  
Jason was about to go back to his work when Nico spoke up again. “What about you? I never see you around too many people.”  
Jason shifted in his seat. “I’m not one for crowds.”  
Nico chuckled and looked down at his work with a smile on his face. Jason noted that it didn’t look like the kind of smile you made when you were happy.  
“I understand that.” Nico said.  
“I thought you liked people.” Jason asked with furrowed eyebrows.  
Nico shrugged.  
“Sure. But not all the time. Sometimes being around all those people, all their talking, and the plans and the parties,” Nico sighed, “well, sometimes I can’t even get a chance to breathe.”  
Jason nodded. He understood that. Being from such a reserved family they’d taught Jason that being loud, being outspoken, being the kind of person Jason had always dreamed of being, he’d learned a lot about the thought of breathing easily. Some days when he’d been forced to accompany his father to the company dinners, he’d been forced to sit at the right hand of his father and only speak when spoken too. Those times he’d keep his mouth shut and as though it knew his voice was being taken from him his lungs began to constrict, until he’d had to excuse himself to the bathroom where his breaths in were paired with tears like the entreés and appetizers at that long table with faces Jason didn’t know. It bred Jason to be the kind of person who never knew how to fill silences in huge rooms with tons of people. It bred him to be the type of man who defended people, sure, but never knew when to speak up for himself, never sure of when the right time to defend himself was. That type of lifestyle had left Jason in a state of being he never understood, would probably never understand, but it was comfortable. He was okay with being quiet, with being the young man barely anyone noticed but liked. For a large portion of his life people had always had a predetermined idea of what he was, demanding and stoic like his father, and when he failed to live up to that he learned that he’d own the way he was.  
Jason wanted to tell Nico all this, wanted to explain that maybe he’d be one of the very few people who understood. But he didn’t.  
“I understand.” He said simply.  
Nico smiled at him, an honest one this time. “I figured you would.”  
They worked easily after that, exchanging words in between their work. It wasn’t the kind of silence Jason was desperate to fill. It was the kind of companionable silence that fell over people who had known each other their entire lives.  
When Jason got up to leave Nico stood with him. They got all their things together and as they exited the room Jason saw one of Nico’s friends come over.  
“Guess it’s back to the normal world.” Jason remarked.  
Nico saw Will coming toward him and he chuckled. “Yeah, I guess so. Maybe we can do this again. Over coffee.”  
Jason felt himself turn red. “You mean, study together?”  
Nico grinned at him, the type of sly grin Jason had always wished had been directed at him.  
“Maybe. Or maybe this.” He leaned in and kissed Jason, a slow burning, searing kiss, filled with promises for more. Until Will pulled Nico away.  
“God, I can’t take you anywhere.” Will muttered as he pulled Nico away.  
“Check your biology book!” Nico called.  
Jason looked down to find a number on a post-it and the words:

**_Text me ;)_ **

Jason smiled at himself as he pocketed the small slip of paper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as always prompts are being accepted! Feel free to just come on and comment and give me a prompt you really want! Have a cosmic day!
> 
> AN: the format hecked up???? idk I will fix it soon maybe, idk i'm like an old person i have no idea how the computies work


	46. Did I Misread The Signs? Your Hand Slipped In Mine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So like Nico and Jason are supposed to be in American college in this story???? But as I am a college dropout who has no fucking clue what college even does this was a poor attempt. Please forgive me.  
> Also, sorry for the short chapters lately. I am constantly busy and it takes time and I swear my mojo will come back soon, please just hang in with me. Thanks.

_**Prompt:** 'I can read minds and this blonde dude in my eng lit definitely thinks I'm hot' _

 

* * *

 

_ I wonder if Jessica’s fed the cat. _

_ Oh god, I am going to fail this text. _

_ I can’t believe I have to fucking be here. _

Nico watched the people as he walked into the lecture hall. He heard low mumbling, and even everyone’s thoughts seemed muted, quieter than normal. 

_I’m glad he got here in time._ He heard someone think. He looked around to find no one looking at him. He thought he’d heard that voice, but it was vague and he wasn’t sure where it had come from.

He took his seat and he began his test.

_ I can’t focus with him sitting over there. _

Nico looked up again, feeling eyes on him once again. He looked around the lecture hall to find no one staring at him. 

_ Shit. He almost saw me. Focus. We have to ace this test. _

Nico shook his head and focused. He was halfway through with the test when he heard the voice again.

_ He looks good today. Should I tell him he looks good? God, that’s a terrible idea. Hey, Nico, I’ve been watching you in lecture and I think you look great. Jesus. _

Nico looked up again and when he looked up he found four people staring in his direction. He looked at them all but none of them gave signs of having been watching him intently. He went back to his work.

 

He got to his apartment and saw Reyna sitting on their couch reading.

“How was lecture? Did you do well on the test?” She asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, fine. But you’ll never guess what happened.”

Reyna looked up from her book. “What?”

Nico furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “Someone’s been thinking about me in my Lit class.”

Reyna grinned in interest. “What did they think? Anything embarrassing?” _Anything weird or freaky?_  He heard in her mind.

Nico shook his head. “Not really. But I don’t know who it is.”

Reyna sighed. “That class has about fifty people to one hundred on a good day. That would take ages to figure out.” _Or you’ll never catch your weird admirer._

Nico shrugged. “I don’t know. They’ll probably never do anything about it. I’m just going to leave it.”

_You’re being ridiculous._  She remarked in her mind. Her face physically didn’t move.

Nico rolled his eyes. “Would it kill you to actually talk sometimes?”

She smiled at him. _Why do that when I could just think instead?_

He chuckled and turned to the front door of their apartment. “Want to go up to the roof?”

She nodded. “Sure.”

They sat on the ledge of their building and looked out at the city skyline. 

The wind swept Nico’s hair from his face and his skin was painted with the reds of the sunset in the sky. 

“It’s nice out.” He said.

She nodded. “It’s a beautiful city.”

He looked at her. “Yeah.”

_ In moments like these I find that maybe we could live like this forever. _

_I hope Karen knows I like her._ He heard someone two blocks away think.

_We should get married someday_. Another person thought, and flashes of a face flashed in Nico’s mind, strange but warm all the same.

_I hope I can do right by him._ He heard a man think just down the street, and he saw a baby in a crib, sighing happily in sleep. 

It all happened in time, running together in lives woven of passings and coming and goings and of all the things that made the interactions of people unique and sparked with fiery liveliness. Nico thought of Bianca, who could feel everyone’s emotions, felt them so much and all the time. He always thought that perhaps it was easier to feel nothing at all. But she’d explain to him the human experience. She explained unhinged devotion, like the love of a mother elephant, or the fiery passion that only humans could feel. She explained that if she ever had to choose she’d choose feeling too much over too little every single time.

She’d also told him that of all the emotions she felt, she felt his love the strongest. 

That had been seven years ago. She was gone, but he’d taken her words to heart, always willing, when the time arose, to feel things fully. 

“So many people are thinking so many things all at once.” He said in the quiet.

Reyna looked at him. “How do you shut it off?”

Nico chuckled. “I don’t. You don’t turn off thought. I live with it, I guess.”

Reyna looked at the city again. “Your gift, it’s unique. Don’t forget that.”

Nico thought of all the freaks and mutants and genetic abnormalities that lived like he did, always on the cusp of normality, but never fully grasping it.

 

_ He looks so good today. He needs to stop wearing those tight pants. _

Nico looked up quickly. 

He turned to the people in his Lit class in the hall and by the time he’d scanned the entire room no one was staring at him. He grumbled to himself while he took his seat by the aisle. 

When the professor called on him to present his thesis on Julius Caesar he walked up to the podium in the lecture hall. He convinced himself that he could determine who was the one who’d been thinking about him if he just stared at the students. That proved to be the wrong decision. He cleared his throat and began. 

“Julius Caesar appointed himself dictator on the 14th of February on the year 45 BC.”

_ Wrong. So wrong. But he’s so cute. _

_ Bored. _

_ Bored. _

_ Ugh why did I sign up for this class? _

_ Who is this kid? I haven’t seen him at all this semester. _

_ Will the professor- _

Nico shook his head of all the thoughts that swarmed in his head. He looked around the room but everyone seemed to either be extremely interested in his presentation or not even bothering to pay attention.

He finished his presentation and sat back down.

_He looks sad. Should I tell him he got some of his information wrong? Would he be mad? I’m trying to get him to like me, not hate me. God what do I do?_

Nico huffed and when the professor dismissed them he just sighed and began to leave. He was walking off campus when someone called to him. 

“Nico!” A voice said behind him.

_ Oh dear god here goes nothing. _

Nico turned quickly. He turned to find a well built blond guy with glasses and blue eyes standing right behind him. His hair was swept around from his sprinting to where Nico was, but he looked handsome nonetheless. 

_Oh god he’s even cuter up close._  Nico heard him think.

Nico nearly laughed out loud until the man rubbed his neck nervously. “Hi, I’m Jason, I’m in your Lit class.”

Nico nodded. “Yes, I’ve seen you a few time.”

_Oh my god. Is that GOOD?_

Jason sighed. “So, some of the information in your thesis is incorrect and I just wanted to talk to you about it. Maybe help you fix it.”

_Maybe help you fall in love with me. Dear christ my hands should not be this sweaty._

Nico nodded. “Yeah sure.”

Jason smiled at him. “Awesome. Maybe we can meet in the library tomorrow?”

_Is this a date? Is it? A date? Oh god what if he doesn’t even know I think it’s a date. Oh my god. Oh my god. OH MY GOD._

Nico put a hand on Jason’s arm, to steady his inner turmoil and maybe to check to make sure he wasn’t having a heart attack.

“How about we get coffee instead? Sometimes soon. A coffee date.”

_OH MY GOD_

Jason chuckled. _I’m totally going to ruin this._ “Yeah, sure! Sounds good.”

Nico nodded and walked off. 

Jason didn’t say anything else, but Nico heard his thoughts.

_Holy shit. Nice smile. Even nicer ass._

Nico chuckled.


	47. I WIll Stand By You Even When We Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HI I AM BACK ALSO FRIENDS I AM SO SORRY I HAVE BEEN WORKING AND WORKING IS HARD PLEASE FORGIVE ME  
> Please take this crossover because I am a sell-out piece of shit who loves The Kane's more than life tbh
> 
> Or, in which Carter and Sadie always fuck shit up, Reyna strangles a monster with her bare fucking hands, and everyone is a lil gay

_**Prompt:** The Field Museum in Chicago just revealed an entire exhibit on the Ancient Greeks and it’s the largest in North America in 25 years. Ideas??_

 

* * *

 

Leo and Thalia ran past Hazel and Frank as they made their way up to the steps of the building. Leo was laughing and Thalia was chasing after him.

“Leo, you get back here!” She yelled as he took to running up the stairs two by two. They passed through the automatic doors and everyone just shook their heads.

Annabeth stood before the colossal building, taking in the Grecian pillars and design. She knew this design well, it had been meant to emulate the Parthenon.

“Daniel Burnham.” She said quietly in awe.

Percy looked at her. “Who?”

Annabeth looked at the building in all it’s glory and she looked emotionally moved by the sight. Percy nearly laughed.

“Daniel Burnham, a great architect and a son of Athena. I talked about him, Percy. When Chicago was hosting the World’s Fair he had to figure out how to building some of the grandest and amazing buildings in such a short time. He did it within the decade, which was amazing in itself. But he revived all the old buildings in honor of Athena. An homage to the Ancient Greeks and Romans.”

Reyna appeared next to her. “He certainly did it justice. This building is very grand. The Romans would have loved it.”

Hazel and Frank just a few yards away nodded.

“Definitely.” Frank said.

Piper walked up the steps past them and smiled at them. “What are you guys waiting for? Come on!”

She walked up the steps and at the rear of their group Jason and Nico walked slowly towards them.

Jason smiled. “I didn’t know you liked museums?”

Nico walked up the steps right behind Percy and Annabeth. “Bianca used to take me to them back in DC. I liked the exhibits.”

They walked into the small area for paying for a group and everyone turned to Nico. He sighed and moved to the head of the group.

“Eleven tickets. To everything in the museum.” He handed over the card and when the woman entering their information gave him the tickets he promptly handed them out as they walked into the Main Hall.

Annabeth slowly turned in a circle, looking at the architecture that made the foundation of the building. The muses that stood in every corner of the Main Hall and the skylight, accentuating. . . a dinosaur?

“Is that a T-rex?” Annabeth asked to no one in particular.

Reyna looked up at the behemoth skeleton. “She is the largest and mostly discovered dinosaur ever encountered.”

Everyone looked at her. She scoffed. “It’s not very surprising to find I have interests.”

Percy laughed. “But dinosaurs?”

She glared at him. He put up his hands in surrender. “Hey, yeah, dinosaurs. Very cool, very hip.”

Annabeth looked at everyone in their group. “So how are we doing this?”

Hazel took Frank’s hand. “Well we wanted to go to the Africa exhibit.”

Frank nodded. “And then the Cyrus Tang Hall of China.”

Piper smiled excitedly. “I wanted to see the Pawnee Earth lodge.”

Reyna looked around. “I wanted to look at the Ancient Americas exhibit.”

Thalia grinned. “Everything. I want to see everything.”

“I wanted to go to the Museum of Science and Industry but no. . .”

“Leo, we talked about this. The only person who wants to see a solar panel powered car is you!” Piper chimed in.

Annabeth sighed. “Okay, well, we have those walkie talkies that Leo made for us, so we can rendezvous here in four hours?”

Thalia groaned.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Fine. Six hours.”

Thalia whooped and soon they were all heading in different directions.

 

Annabeth and Percy on one of the benches in the main hall.

“He did such an amazing job. I bet mom was really proud.”

Percy looked around at the building and chuckled. “I’ve seen better.”

Annabeth scoffed. “By who?”

“By you.” Percy smiled.

Annabeth looked away for a moment and then turned back. Neither of them mentioned the pink in her cheeks.

“Where should we start first?”

Percy looked over at the exhibit with the built in pyramid. It reminded him of Carter and Sadie. “Maybe start with Egypt.”

Annabeth nodded, smiling. “Let’s go.”

They descended into the stone building, the tunnels narrow and low. Had it been any other situation they would have panicked. But Percy had his sword in his back pocket and Annabeth had her dagger strapped to her ankle and her Yankees cap in the backpack she’d taken for the trip. They walked through the beginnings of the exhibit. All around them were slabs of hieroglyphs.

“Carter would love these.” Percy said.

Annabeth looked at the decaying dolls and pottery with intricate designs. “So would Sadie.”

They walked through the maze of stone slowly, following the groups there. There were screaming children and kids that looked barely ten. They looked at everything in awe and Percy and Annabeth seemed to join them.

They looked at the sarcophagi of the pharaohs. They turned to each other and smiled when they thoughts of all the things here that Carter and Sadie would have loved. It had been a few short meetings, but sometimes they called upon each other and they’d spend time together if only for a few hours before one or both of the pairs needed to go.

Annabeth was about to say something when they heard a crash come from inside the open hall of the exhibit.

Percy and Annabeth ran to where they held the main part of the exhibit with the reed boat and shrine to Set.

The reed boat was destroyed and from the splintered remains of the boat someone was emerging.

Percy looked up at the sky and let out a loud groan. “Just once. Just one time. Can I just go out one time? Without monsters or anything? Is it so hard?”

Annabeth looked at him with a quirked eyebrow. “What?”

Percy sighed and pointed to the boy emerging from the boat’s remaining parts. “It’s Carter.”

Annabeth let out a long-suffering sigh.

 

Jason and Nico walked together through the Ancient Greece exhibit.

“Everything looks so old, but so new at the same time. We have some of these artifacts at Camp Half-Blood.” Jason said.

Nico nodded. “Yes, the mortals took a lot of these when they discovered some places, and we let them have them.”

They arrived to a huge vase that told the story of Achilles and Patroclus.

“I never heard that story.” Jason said.

Nico sighed as he looked at it. “I saw them once, in Elysium. They’re happy there.”

“What happened to them?” Jason asked.

Nico sighed. “You didn’t learn about the Trojan War?”

Jason shook his head, even with my memories from back in Camp Jupiter, we were encouraged not to cavort with the Greeks, even through history.”

Nico nodded and looked back at the vase, Achilles’ face snarled in anger as he charged at Hector.

“Did you ever hear about Silena Beauregard?” Nico asked quietly.

Jason nodded. “She pretended to be Clarisse and saved everyone in the Battle of Manhattan.”

Nico nodded. “Patroclus did the same for Achilles in the Trojan War. He died and back then if you were a servant you didn’t get a grave. You weren’t deserving.”

Nico looked at the painted Patroclus laying on the ground and he felt an aching sadness. “But Achilles loved him. In his rage Achilles killed Hector, who had killed Patroclus, and he asked that they give Patroclus a grave. Because he deserved one, because he was a hero. Patroclus died a hero and when Paris killed Achilles they met in the afterlife. They went to Elysium together.”

Jason looked at Nico who observed the pottery with a sad but fond look on his face. Nico shook his head after a few minutes and then turned to Jason.

“It was a Greek Tragedy, they way all heroes are, but it was nice, to think they could be together in death.”

Jason smiled at him. “Do you think they loved each other? You know, the way we love each other?”

Nico shrugged. “I never asked. But I would hope so. Patroclus gave his life so that Achilles could live, so that their city and people could win.”

Jason nodded and took his hand. “I’d do the same for you, you know.”

Nico nodded and took his hand as they walked on.

They walked for a few minutes into they heard a voice over their walkie talkie.

“Everyone,” Percy said, “we have a bit of a problem.”

Jason and Nico sighed and ran out of the exhibit.

 

Hazel and Frank were in the Cyrus Tang Hall looking at the tapestries.

“They’re beautiful.” Hazel said quietly in awe.

Frank looked around at the tapestries and the writing and the diagrams of buildings and villages.

“They’re pretty amazing.”

They walked through the exhibit, the quiet serene music a change of pace from their quick and fast-paced lives.

Hazel turned to Frank as she looked at pottery halfway through the exhibit. “Do you know about a lot of this stuff?”

Frank shrugged. “My grandma used to teach me about things, always so worried I’d never learn enough about our heritage in time. But I don’t know. . .” he trailed off.

Hazel looked at him. “What is it?”

Frank sighed and looked at the terracotta bowls, done with an intricacy and talent he felt he’d never possess. He looked around the room at the things that felt like parts of home to him, but also like dusty artifacts he’d never understand. There was a reason it was hard for Frank to explain he was part Canadian. Because being split down the middle by two completely different halves meant he never truly belonged to either one. His mother had encouraged him to learn about her culture, and his by default, but it had been hard. It got harder after she’d died, especially after she died.

He put his hand on one of the plaques that spoke of the warriors of China and he thought of his mother, the strongest warrior of all.

“It’s just hard.” He said quietly.

Hazel took his arm and she gave him a gentle squeeze and a sympathetic look. He was thankful for it. Until their walkies buzzed.

“Everyone, we have a bit of a problem.” Percy said in an uneasy tone.

Frank reached for the foldable bow and quiver Leo had given him just a few months before and he gripped Hazel’s hand and they ran out of the exhibit.

 

Thalia and Reyna were looking at the dinosaurs along with a group of loud ten-year-olds.

“They’re awesome!” Thalia exclaimed.

Reyna looked over at her and smiled as she stared at a triceratops. “How did you manage to leave your league of huntresses?”

Thalia grinned at her. “I asked Lady Artemis if I could have some time with Jason. She was nice about it.”

Reyna nodded and continued to walk slowly as she looked at the dinosaurs. “Do you enjoy it? The Hunters of Diana?”

Thalia scoffed good-naturedly. “Yeah! World of adventures and good company. It was easy to give up men.”

Reyna nodded slowly, as though she was contemplating.

Thalia looked at her. “You thinking of joining us?”

Reyna shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t been able to think much of that option.”

She thought about what Venus had said, or, Aphrodite. It was still so confusing. She thought about when Jason announced he’d be staying at Camp Half-Blood. That had been two years ago and many things could change, in fact they had. Piper had left Jason and Nico had been with Jason and Percy and Annabeth had already been finishing their second year of college. She spent more time with Piper, had since she’d left Jason, but they only saw each other once a month. Reyna still led the Legion. She loved running the Legion, but sometimes it got lonely. She’d spent the better part of her life establishing a name out of cold stone and hard grit, but now it seemed that people had kept her on the pedestal she’d built from her cold stares and the stone of her impassive stares. She worried that maybe people didn’t talk to her because they respected her too much. She had respect, which she loved, but she also craved a companion, someone to be there after she’d take off the formal roman robes and all that was left was Reyna, who certainly wouldn’t mind a loving relationship.

Thalia smiled at her. “Don’t worry. You’ll be okay.”

They walked for a few moments in the aisles of dinosaur bones in glass cases.

After a while Thalia spoke quietly, now that the hall only had two or three other occupants.

“You know, I used to like this guy. Luke. He was a pretty nice guy.” She said as she looked at the remains of things from a time before they could fathom.

Reyna nodded and Thalia continued, not looking at her. “But Luke was cold, and he was lonely. And these things festered in him. He’s the reason we had the war with the Titans in the first place.

“Luke didn’t love people, or, well, maybe at one time his hate was stronger than his love. But living like that, with all that inside of him. It tore him apart. Luke needed love, needed the kinds of things demigods are discouraged from asking for. He wanted a dad who was there for him, a family that was his. It wasn’t such a tall order. I hear some demigods manage it in New Rome.”

Reyna nodded. “Yes. They do. And they live peacefully.”

Thalia nodded again. “And that’s why I think you’ll be fine. I think sometimes I look at you and I see Luke. Luke was kind, even in those last few months. He ruined so many lives, killed so many of us,” she gripped the railing of the divider tight, so tight her knuckles were white, “but Luke wanted something new, wanted a family, and Kronos knew that. He used him. I know you’ll never fall for something like that. Everyone keeps saying how clever and smart you are, but just. . . don’t wait for those types of things.”

Reyna nodded at Thalia for a moment before she looked up and found Piper running toward her with a smile, waving a gift shop bag enthusiastically.

“I won’t.”

Piper was about to say something when she finally arrived in front of them but their walkies buzzed.

Percy’s voice crackled over the speaker. “Guys, we have a bit of a problem.”

Thalia’s bow and quiver appeared out of nowhere and Piper sighed.

“What now?”

 

Leo was waiting for them by Sue the Dinosaur when Percy and Annabeth arrived there first. They also had a boy with dark skin about their age with them and a strawberry blonde girl. They were all gasping and the boy had a sickle in one hand and what looked like a wand in the other hand.

Leo inclined with his thumb to the two teens. “What’s with Harry Potter and Hermione?”

The girl scoffed. “Oh they’ve told us about you. A right git you were faking your death.”

Leo was about to launch into his recited excuses but Annabeth held a hand up. “Not the time, Leo. This is Carter and Sadie. They’re demigods. . . erm, well, sort of. It’s kind of complicated.”

Leo nodded. “Right, complicated. But why did you send everyone a message over the walkies?”

Percy sighed. “Too many demigods in one place. We should have known they would sense us.”

Leo froze. “They?”

Carter tried to catch his breathing still as he spoke. “Nemean Lion apparently. Also I am pretty sure there’s three gorgons.”

Leo groaned and as he did Jason and Nico came running out of the Greek exhibit.

“Guys!” Jason called.

“What’s going on?” Nico asked.

Percy sighed and pointed to the things coming out of the Egypt exhibit that was effectively destroyed.

“We have a problem.”

The Nemean Lion came charging straight at them and in a quick remembrance of the huge dinosaur they turned quickly to lead it away to cause less damage. The Lion prepared to charge but a silver, glowing arrow hit him. It did nothing to hurt him, but it did help to distract the lion while they all ran.

“So, tell me why you guys all went here if monsters can sense you?” Carter asked.

Reyna, Thalia, and Piper appeared beside them.

“We thought it would be fun.” Piper said.

“Who is this?” Thalia asked Percy and Annabeth.

“No time to talk!” Annabeth snapped as the Lion charged.

From across the hall they saw the gorgons hovering, but preparing to attack them.

“Nico! Jason! The gorgons!” Percy shouted.

Jason and Nico went running toward the Gorgons with Piper following behind them.

Jason turned to her. “This isn’t safe, Piper!”

“He’s right!” Reyna shouted

Piper turned to him and she gripped her dagger in one hand and her cornucopia in the other.

“You’re not doing this alone. Let’s make it a fair fight.”

Reyna stepped forward to stop her but Piper looked at her and smiled.

“I’ll be safe. I promise.”

Piper ran off with them and soon the gorgons were circling them. Jason and Nico kept their heads down and Piper did the same.

“Demigods! You must perish!”

“Don’t look at Medusa!” Nico shouted over the distant echoing roars of the lion.

“Always with Medusa!” Stheno screeched.

Euryale snarled. “Mother always liked her best!”

“Sisters! It is time to kill the demigods! Enough chatter!”

Piper scoffed. “Not quite.”

She closed her eyes and pointed the cornucopia at the Gorgons. They screamed and shouted as papayas and kiwi fruits hit them.

“You’ll pay for that, Daughter of Aphrodite.” Stheno snarled.

“Some say I was even more beautiful than your mother!” Medusa yelled.

“She’s a vain little peacock.” Nico murmured.

Jason just shook his head and waited as the Gorgons screeched.

“What’s wrong, Jason Grace? Are you afraid you’ll not be able to look away once you’ve started?!” Medusa goaded.

Jason refused, sealing his eyes tight in determination and Medusa cursed. She turned her sights on Nico, who only stared at the ground.

“Nico di Angelo! Surely you cannot resist such a beautiful woman! Percy Jackson nearly didn’t!”

Shadows began to curl around Nico. “Yeah, there’s just one problem with that.”

And he disappeared.

Medusa snarled at the black smoke that wisped through the air.

Nico appeared in back of her and just as he swung his sword he laughed and Piper thought he was insane.

“I’m gay.” He said simply, as he cut off her head.

“Medusa!” Stheno and Euryale yelled in agony.

They turned to Nico who was gasping as he wrapped Medusa’s head in his jacket. He cursed.

“Just one jacket I’d like to keep intact. Just one.”

Jason sighed. “Nico, we have a bigger problem here.”

Stheno charged at them while Euryale barreled toward Piper. Nico nearly rushed to her side until he saw that she had been landing blows on Euryale. She would jab and then blast her with the contents of her cornucopia.

 

Back with Percy he turned to Carter as the monster yelled and prepared to stampede them.

“What did you guys do?!” He yelled.

Carter turned to Sadie who looked back at them with a mildly shameful expression. “I may have made it a bit mad.”

The lion roared and it’s gnarled teeth showed themselves.

“A bit?” Frank and Leo exclaimed in unison, though accidentally.

“How was I supposed to know Greek animals don’t like to be touched?”

“Why would you try and pet a lion?!” Thalia yelled, reaching for more arrows.

Percy sighed. “I can’t defeat it like I did last time. It wouldn’t work.”

Thalia cursed. “You’re damn right it wouldn’t.”

Reyna stepped forward, her spear in hand, seemingly from out of nowhere. “I’ll do it.”

Everyone turned to her. Leo had the urge to check if she had a fever.

“That could never work.” Carter and Annabeth said at the same time. After which they both gave each other a look of unease.

Sadie shook her head. “My brother, as much as I hate to say this, is right. You see the size of that thing?”

Reyna stood tall and walked past them. “Hercules did it, the Roman stories say. So I shall do it. I will climb the back of that mighty beast and slay him.”

She walked forward and she turned to Thalia, Carter, and Annabeth.

“Show me how I can mount him.”

Annabeth looked around frantically, thinking of possible tactics lightning fast. “Second floor, jump down onto his back.”

The lion charged them just as Reyna ran toward the stairs.

“Keep him distracted!” She yelled.

Sadie held her staff tight and grinned in delight as Carter sighed next to Percy. “Got it!”

 

Defeating Euryale had been easy for Piper. It took calculated measure and waiting, but when she turned to dust it had been easy for Piper to let it go and focus on Stheno. She was currently standing very close to Jason and Nico. She circled them and her snakes lashed out at them, narrowly missing every time.

“Jason.” Piper called.

Jason shook his head as he looked at her. “No time! We’ll be okay! Just go make sure that they defeat the Nemean Lion!”

Piper turned to see Reyna jumping onto the back of the lion as the boy Carter and the girl Sadie blasted it with magic. Hazel was using the mist to disorient the beast and Thalia and Frank’s arrows did nothing to help incapacitate the lion.

“Reyna!” Piper called in alarm.

Reyna struggled with a thick rope around the neck of the huge beast. It roared and struggled, rearing and bearing it’s claws as it tried to throw her off like she was fighting a bull in a ring.

“She can’t strangle that beast with just a rope and her hands!” Percy yelled over the sound of the lion’s roaring.

Reyna looked over from where the Nemean Lion had knocked over a totem pole.

“I can and I will.”

Piper rolled up her sleeves and looked at Annabeth, who was yelling instructions at Reyna on how to stay on the huge beast.

“How do I get on it?” She asked.

“Are you insane? No, Piper, this is too dangerous.”

Piper looked at her. “You have to trust me, Annabeth. How do I get up there?”

Percy pointed the stairs and Piper took off, running as fast as she could.

 

Jason slashed at Stheno and he knew he’d struck when she tumbled and fell to the ground. She got up and she was charging at Nico and Jason.

“Split up!” Nico ordered.

Just in time they flanked Stheno and when she barreled forward she crashed into a pillar of the building. She lay disoriented for a minute, the alabaster stone scattered because of her impact.

She got up slowly and began to stalk them. “I’ll have a good time eating you demigods. My sisters would want me to.”

She let out a sharp screech and just as she was about to charge a green flash passed through their vision and Stheno was suddenly dust.

They looked over to find the dark skin boy huffing. He held a staff in one hand and what looked like a sickle in the other.

“Anyone ever tell these monsters they talk too much?”

Nico and Jason looked down at the pile of dust and then stared back at him.

“Who are you? How did you do that?” Nico asked.

Carter shook his head. “If I explained we’d be here all day. Eye of Horus, Leader of the Twenty-First Nome. Mostly people just call me Carter. Sadie calls me doofus.”

Jason looked at his wand and sickle. “You’re a demigod? What’s the Eye of Horus?”

Just as Carter opened his mouth the lion roared from the other end of the hall and Carter sighed.

“Listen, we can talk later, but right now you guys have a Nemean Lion that needs to be killed.”

Jason and Nico took off, Carter right alongside them. When they got closer they saw that Reyna and Piper were both gripping ropes tight and the Nemean Lion was struggling now, seeming to grow weaker.

“Is that Reyna and Piper?!” Jason asked.

Carter nodded. “I don’t know what they give you demigods at camp, but that is some serious strength.”

Annabeth was running back and forth around the area, trying to examine the situation. Percy and Leo protected her whenever the lion’s claws got too close or the monster knocked over rubble that could hurt the others.

“Frank! Thalia! At the ready!” She called, and she looked like the most qualified battle leader Nico had ever seen. It reminded him of the Battle of Manhattan when she’d led an army then and there was something truly Athenian about her authority.

Frank and Thalia drew their bows.

“Hazel, go!” She called. Hazel began to manifest the mist around the Nemean Lion.

“Sadie, Carter, on my mark!” She called.

Carter ran forward with Sadie and they held their weapons tight in their hands.

Annabeth waited until the monster was preparing to launch itself into another roar.

“Thalia, light the arrow!”

Thalia did just that and held a flaming arrow ready with her bow. Hazel manipulated the mist, curling it and forcing it into the air to envelope them so that the Mortals couldn’t see them.

The Nemean Lion roared and Annabeth raised her hand. “Fire!”

Frank launched arrow after arrow into the monster’s gaping maw as Thalia’s flaming arrow got stuck in it’s throat.

“Reyna! Piper! Pull tighter!” Annabeth called.

Reyna and Piper gripped the ropes and tugged them as hard as they possibly could. Reyna’s strength waned, having been gripping the throat of this enormous beast for too long. But Piper held on long and tight, gripping the ropes with white knuckles. They tugged once more and just as they saw the Greek fire burn through the monster’s throat it struggled one last time before it finally disintegrated into a pile of dust. Reyna and Piper were left in the ashes and they quickly got up.

Reyna dusted herself off and then proceeded to help Piper dust herself off.

“That was incredibly foolish of you.” Reyna said breathlessly, her voice hoarse and sore as much as the other parts of her.

“Someone has to keep you from picking every fight you see.” Piper smiled at her.

“I can’t believe you strangled a Nemean Lion with your bare hands.” Leo said as they all ran to help Reyna and Piper.

Reyna shrugged and turned to Piper. “It’s because I had help.”

Everyone was quiet for a moment before they turned to the two people who had followed Percy and Annabeth.

Thalia looked at Percy. “Who are they? You have explaining to do.”

Carter and Sadie looked at Percy and Annabeth until Percy sighed.

“Let’s get out of here first. I think I’ve had enough history for once.”

 

Jason and Nico were walking ahead of everyone else in Millennium Park in Downtown Chicago. They talked quietly as they held hands. It felt stranger in Chicago than New York. Here Nico didn’t find that people stared at them too often. It had been smiles more than anything else and he’d been thankful for it.

“You did good today.” Jason said.

Nico gave him a small smile. “We did good together.”

Jason smiled at him and he kissed him. They kissed for a moment, the fresh smell from the lake wafted up to them mixed with the sounds of sirens, children laughing, and people talking. It was a symphony of sounds and senses and Jason loved the feeling of Nico’s hand in his to add to the experience.

Carter, from a few feet away from them, where Percy, Sadie, Annabeth, Leo, Thalia, and Reyna all sat, looked at Piper.

“Are they. . .?”

Piper looked over to where Jason was kissing Nico sweetly.

She turned to him. “That won’t be a problem will it?”

Carter shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I was just wondering.”

Piper nodded.

Carter continued to look at them. “They seemed to work well together.”

Reyna, from where she sat listening to Sadie explain rolled her eyes. “Too well if you ask me.”

Carter chuckled and looked at where Jason and Nico now simple stood, holding hands, looking at each other.

Piper had laughter in her voice. “They do that all the time, to be honest. Slay a monster, gaze into each other’s eyes. Eat breakfast, gaze into each other’s eyes. Jason has made Nico turn to goo.”

Carter thought of Zia back in New York. He’d promised her a date next week and looking at them, he wondered if maybe he looked like that to other people.

“They look happy.” He said.

Piper smiled at them fondly. “They’re kind of idiots. But they’re good people, albeit emotionally stunted ones. They’re one of the happiest couples I know. And the strongest. Two children of the Big Three.”

Carter remembered something Percy had once said. “Don’t children of the Big Three usually butt heads a lot.”

Piper nodded. “Sure. Thalia and Percy, leave them in a room alone together long enough and there’s a hurricane coming right for us. But Jason and Nico . . . don’t. They work. They have a dynamic that just makes it easy for them.”

Carter nodded.

Piper shrugged. “I mean, it’s not to say they don’t fight ever. They’ve had about three major fights.”

“What happened?” Carter asked.

Piper looked at him. “Let’s just say our dining pavilion has suffered enough.”

Carter chuckled and looked at them for a few more moments before he stood up and looked at Sadie.

“We have to go.”

Sadie sighed and got up. “Fine. Fine. But I gave your new friends here the Eye of Horus.”

Leo looked at them. “The Eye of Horus?”

Carter nodded. “It’s how I communicate. The person just has to call for me through it. Percy will show you how it works. In the meantime, we have to go look for a cat and a monster we let loose in Brooklyn.”

“What were you even doing in Chicago?” Annabeth asked.

Sadie pulled out a scroll from her backpack. “We needed a spell.”

“When did you have time to steal that?!” Hazel asked, shocked.

Percy smiled at her as she waved and both she and Carter ran off.

“That girl is something.” Thalia said.

Percy laughed. “She’s good.”

The group called for Jason and Nico and they all held hands as the shadows gathered around Nico.

“Where to?” Nico asked.

Percy smiled. “Take us home. To Camp Half-Blood.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still accepting Prompts! :D


	48. And Who Knows We Might Make Something Beautiful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Nico and Jason are suffering because the author just watched the entirety of the second season of Daredevil and wanted her gays to sufffffeeeeeeeerrrr.  
> Or, in which Nico is too precious for this world and Jason is lil shit
> 
> Also, just a quick note for everyone, please expect an update now at least once a week. It will be slow bc my job is killing my soul

_**Prompt:** Jason and Nico together since childhood and they had a relationship when they were in high school,but when college came, Jason started to tell Nico it was all a phase and began having a series of hetero relationships. Years later, they meet again, probably Nico applying to work with Jason or them meeting by chance, whichever you want, and Jason begins to woo Nico again, but it is hard because Neeks has been hurt before. Fluff or smut is all up to you. Both is good though._

 

* * *

 

When Nico was seven a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes stood over him in the sandbox. He’d built the huge palace on Olympus, or so he’d thought. Upon reflection some ten years later Nico will realize it’s kinda just a mound of wet sand. But the blonde boy standing over him smiles at him and maybe if it’s just a mound of sand, when Jason Grace, who is in Ms. Temple’s class, smiles down at Nico, who is in Mrs. Mulberry’s class, it feels like a pretty damn awesome palace. Jason kneels beside him and that day the clouds were stark white against a deep blue sky. Nico kind of remembers this perfectly.

“What’s this?” Jason asked in wonder. He’s missing one of his front teeth because the tooth fairy stole it, or so Thalia says. So he has a dorky and hopeful smile that never goes away but he has a lisp that disappears within the month.

Nico smiled at him. “It’s Mount Olympus! Where the gods live.”

Jason’s eyes widened. “Whoa! Cool! Like, from Mythomagic?!”

Nico’s eyes widen in amazement and by the end of recess Ms. Temple and Mrs. Mulberry have two children who refuse to leave the other.

By the the next week Jason and Nico are both officially enrolled into Mrs. Mulberry’s class.

 

So Nico and Jason have loved each other since they were seven. Their parents never got along but by the time Thalia had moved out when Jason was ten Nico and Bianca just visited them at Thalia’s new apartment.

“You’ll love it here!” Jason gushed as they rode the bus toward their apartment. Thalia was watching both of them for the afternoon while she had the day off.

Nico held Jason’s hand tight as they got off the bus and they skipped along with Thalia.

“I can’t wait for you to see my room!” Jason continued.

Nico, only ten, was the silent type, never much for talking unless he and Jason were alone. In times they were together Nico depended on Jason to speak for him, because it was easier, and with Jason beside him he depended a lot on him.

 

They were holding hands as they sat at a table in an ice cream parlor the first time it happened.

“Excuse me.” A woman said as she looked at Thalia.

Thalia was laughing as Jason and Nico leaned into each other, their hands clasped tight on the surface of the table.

Thalia smiled at her, the feeling of laughter having a lasting effect. “Yes, ma’am?”

The woman casted a sneer at the boys and suddenly they all frowned, fear gripping them.

“Shouldn’t you be teaching these boys something else?”

Thalia frowned. “Excuse me?”

The woman huffed. “I’m just saying, it’s not natural for them to hold hands like that. And it’s certainly not natural at so young an age. Fix them while you can, you know.”

Jason pulled their hands under the table and Nico frowned at him and then at the woman. Thalia looked at Jason, who had always been the most sensitive of the two and he looked upset, tears watering in his eyes. People were beginning to watch them and Thalia stood, She was only twenty but she could hold her own. Her eyes crackled with fiery lightning.

“Boys, put your hands back on the table.” She said to them softly.

Jason flushed but did as he was told. Nico felt the urge to rip their hands away.

Thalia pointed to their hands as she looked at the woman in anger.

“There is _nothing_ wrong with these boys, you hear me? Nothing. And I won’t have some no-named homophobic piece of shit who looks like she gets her jollies when she picks on kids telling me that there is. Just because you get off putting your damn nose where it doesn’t belong doesn’t mean I’m going to let you talk about my boys like that. They’re ten years old for christ sake. And just in case you ever feel the need to tell someone that again,” she opened her wallet where a photo of her and her girlfriend were smiling while they kissed and shoved it in the woman’s face, “ _don’t._ ”

The woman scuttled away and Thalia let out a breath as she looked at the boys. “Come on, Jason, Nico. Let’s go home.”

The boys were silent as they walked home.

On the bus Nico nudged Jason. He said nothing but he wrapped his arm around Jason’s and Jason leaned into him, his eyes sad.

That night they both faced each other in Jason’s bed.

“That lady was mean.” Jason muttered.

Nico nodded. “Yeah.”

Jason looked at Nico and he began to cry softly. “She said I was wrong for loving you. But I do love you. We share crackers and you like Aquaman and Power Rangers. You’re awesome. Why was she so mad that I loved you? You’re my best friend.”

Nico watched him silently. “You’re my best friend too.”

Jason looked at Nico’s hands and he took one of them. “I don’t wanna stop holding your hand.”

Nico pulled him into a side hug as Jason continued to cry. “Then you don’t have to.”

About halfway through the night Thalia came into the room and shook Nico awake.

“Nico. Nico. Wake up. Please, Nico.”

Nico turned to her, wiping the sleep out of his eyes. “Yeah, Thalia?”

She looked at him and she was crying. “Nico, it’s Bianca.”

 

Jason held Nico’s hand as they heard the pastor say the last words. Jason cried because death was sad and Nico cried because Bianca, sweet and beautiful and supportive, had died. She was one of the few people Nico talked to and she loved him like Jason loved him. Years later, when Nico is in high school he’ll remember her as she was, beautiful and all, but ten-year-old Nico can old think about how his father had taken him with him to the morgue to identify her body. There’s nothing recognizable about her beautiful face anymore, the only thing recognizable is a green cap that Nico’s father burns in their fireplace.

When Jason and Nico walk to school they hold hands. Nico is silent, but not the comfortable silence Jason loves, but the kind of silence where Nico hangs his head and his eyes are glossy.

“We’ll be okay, Nico. I promise.” Jason says to him as they walk in Brooklyn to their school.

Nico nods.

“Are you okay?” Jason asks after a while, even though he knows the answer.

Nico nods.

Jason pulls out something from his pocket and he puts it in Nico’s hand. Nico looks down at the thing in his hand and sniffles.

“What is it?”

Jason gives him a comforting smile. “It’s a paper star. It has a little note on the inside. To make you feel better.”

Nico opens the paper star.

_You’re the best friend I ever had._

Nico smiles despite himself and he sniffles as he looks up at Jason, who is already growing much faster than he is.

“Can you make me more?” Nico asks as he wipes his nose and his eyes are bloodshot.

Jason smiles at him. “I’ll make you as many as you like! To fill, like, a million jars!”

Nico chuckles and he shakes his head. “Just two jars is okay.”

Jason smiles at him and they begin to walk from where they paused.

“Whatever you want, Nico.”

 

Jason bursts into the room when it’s midnight on a Saturday in July of their freshman year of high school.

“Jason! God, do you ever knock?” Nico asks as he sits up in bed. Comic books are strewn about the bed but his room is otherwise neat. Hazel just left with Frank to a midnight showing of some movie they both love and Jason’s heart is pounding fast.

“I need to talk to you.” He says, in favor of responding to Nico’s jibe. He’s breathless, considering he just ran to the subway from his house, and then ran the ten blocks here because he couldn’t wait for the rush of adrenaline to wash away his courage.

Nico chuckles and he stands. “Catch your breath first. What? Did you challenge Percy to see who could get to Central Park first again?”

Jason huffs another breath. “Percy is a rotten cheater and everyone knows it.”

Nico just shakes his head fondly and looks at him again. “What did you need on a Saturday night? Didn’t you have a date?”

Nico is kind of bitter about it, but in a subtle way he’d like for people to completely ignore. Besides, people are usually very good at glossing over Nico’s silences. It’s how he blends in so well.

“I canceled it.”

Nico nods. “Okay?”

Jason finally catches his breath and he looks around Nico’s room like he’s caught himself doing very often these days. There’s photos from their trip to the zoo when they were twelve. There’s a photo of Nico and Jason at their eighth grade formal where they’d gone together. There’s smatterings of photos, from picnics with Thalia and their friends, photos of Reyna, Piper, Leo, Hazel, Frank, Percy, Annabeth, and Will along with the two of them at the beach. There’s ones of every single birthday and firework they’ve experienced together and it’s not until Jason turned thirteen that he’d realized just how much he loved Nico. On one of the shelves are even two full jars of small paper stars. Jason knows Nico rations them out on his bad days to make them last.

“I love you.” He says.

There’s silence until Nico laughs and sits back down.

“Love you too, you dork. You didn’t have to run all this way at midnight just to tell me. You could have texted me.”

Jason knelt beside his bed. “No. You’re not understanding. I’m in love with you.”

“What?” Nico asks. Partly out of shock, but also to make sure he’s not gone deaf.

Jason huffs and looks down. “I know we’ve known each other for, what, seven years now, but I just, we’re starting high school next week and I don’t want to start this scary new thing without you. I can’t keep pretending that all I want is to be your friend, because I love you. And I think about you. A-and not in the friend way, in a romantic way and now I’m rambling and feel free to just stop me whenever you-”

Nico puts his hand on Jason’s mouth to effectively shut him up and he’s giving Jason a small smile, something that does strange things to Jason now.

“Has anyone ever told you you talk too much?” Nico asks, but he’s moving forward and Jason’s wanted this for a year so he surges forward and their mouths are slick against each other. Neither of them have any idea how long they stay, Jason hovering over Nico, their bodies and mouths connected. Until someone clears their throat.

Jason and Nico jump apart to find Nico’s father standing in the doorway.

His father has a bored look on his face but Jason’s gotten used to the di Angelo facial expressions and he knows that Mr. di Angelo has to approve just a little bit or he would have thrown Jason out a long time ago.

“The door stays open.” Is all he says before he’s gone.

 

So loving each other is easy. Their freshmen year they stir things up at their school when they show up to school holding hands. Their friends all cheer them on, and for Nico and Jason that’s all that matters. Their Sophomore year they celebrate their first anniversary by visiting Bianca’s grave. But this time it isn’t sad, because Nico has Jason and all the friends he never thought he’d have. Their Junior year Jason learns that Loyola Law school in Chicago is willing to accept him. But they don’t support gay people. And Jason’s scholarship depends on it. He can’t afford to ask his father for money, not having seen him in years.

The day he gets the letter Nico is sitting on the couch in his living room and Jason is looking at the paper that says he got in. He lets out a small gasp and Nico looks back at him from where he’s standing by the door.

“What’s wrong?” Nico asks.

Jason looks up at him and for a moment he’s almost excitedly told him about the school. But if Jason wants to go to school for free he’ll have to force his relationship to be a secret. And he’ll be moving nearly halfway across the country. Jason thinks about how he’ll have a year to decide what he wants to do and for now he doesn’t have to worry about this.

He smiles at Nico and he must give a convincing enough smile because Nico doesn’t question it.

“Nothing. Wanna put on the movie?”

 

Jason knows what he has to do.

He has to break up with Nico.

He’ll be moving across the country and Nico is going to Italy with his father to learn business. He can’t afford to tie Nico down from what he wants.

The night before they graduate Nico and Jason are sitting on a bench in Central Park and it should be nice. But all Jason can think about is how he got the first flight out to Chicago the moment graduation is over.

“We have to talk.” He says.

Nico looks at him and sees his eyes and frowns. “About what?”

Jason looks down at their intertwined hands and pulls away. “I can’t do this anymore.”

“What?” Nico asks again, shaking his head like he’s not heard Jason.

Jason sighed and stood. “We were silly to think that we’d last with me in Chicago and you in Italy. I was silly. That’s why I have to stop this.”

He thinks about how he has to give this up for his school, the only option he has if he wants to be a lawyer someday. He has to give this up and maybe one day when he’s passed the Bar exam he’ll finally be with Nico the way he knows he can be. Plus Nico will be in Italy for the foreseeable future and Jason can’t ask him to deal with a distance that wide.

Nico chuckles humorlessly. “You don’t mean that.”

Jason nods. “Yes. Yes. I do. I got a ticket to go to Chicago tomorrow, right after the ceremony is over.”

Nico stands up and looks at him. “But you wanted this. When we were fourteen you said you wanted this.”

Jason steps back and looks down and knows what he’ll say next and hates himself for it. “I thought I did too. But it was just a phase. I was wrong.”

“Just a phase.” Nico says quietly to himself.

Jason feels tears well up in his eyes and he turns away before Nico can see them. He runs all the way home where Thalia is sitting in the living room.

“Hey! How was the date with Nico?” She asks, like she does after every time they’re out. She adopts a confused face when he doesn’t respond immediately.

He looks up at her as he shuts the door and at the sight of her furrowed eyebrows he collapses into her arms. He begins to shake with his sobs and she just pets his hair and holds him.

“I had to do it.” He says, over and over. He says it like the mantra will heal the aching in his heart and Thalia continues to hug him until she’s convinced him he should pack for Chicago.

* * *

 

"Nico!" He hears someone shout behind him.

Nico turns around, slightly in shock, but also because he wasn't paying attention. He was too busy trying to figure out why Jason left.

Will is waving at him but he wants to crawl away somewhere, anywhere but in the middle of all these giddy teens. He feels like his whole world has collapsed around him, maybe it had. 

"Where's Jason?" Will asks unsuspectingly, but it strikes a chord in Nico and suddenly he feels tears running down his face. Will's eyebrows furrow in concern.

"Nico? What's wrong?"

Nico wants to explain the whole situation but instead he just runs off. He can't do it, can't deal with saying goodbye to the only part of his life that had Jason in it.

 

He is at home, by himself, when Hazel comes peaking her head through the door. 

She looks at him cautiously, he's been crying for hours. 

"Nico?"

He looks up at her but doesn't speak, doesn't trust himself not to cry. She eventually makes her way to his bed and sits beside him.

"Where's Jason?"

"H-he's going to leave. To Chicago." Nico says quietly, his voice cracks and he feels something in him break. His heart feels cold. 

"For how long?" She says in slight shock.

Nico looks over at the photo hanging above his bed. They're kissing and they look so happy and he thinks about things have changed in such a short time and how maybe if he could have avoided getting hurt he would have chosen something else. 

Chosen anything else.

He reaches up and yanks the frame from the wall and throws it in the garbage bin. "I don't know."

* * *

 

The next day he doesn’t look for Nico in the throngs of graduates and when all their friends, confused and worried, ask what’s happened Jason leaves Nico to deal with them. He sorry that Nico will have to answer the questions about what happened, but Jason can’t be around them, can’t be reminded of the home he’s leaving behind. He goes to the airport with Thalia.

“You’ll be back before you know it.” Thalia says quietly to him. Her eyes are watery and Jason wonders who she’s trying to convince.

He sighs. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to come back in the summers. I’ll be back in no time at all, Thalia.”

They hug at his terminal and Jason wishes that Nico would be there to see him off. He also wishes he could say good-bye to his friends. He thinks about that little jar on Nico’s shelf, full of paper stars with words Jason wrote when he was ten. He’s eighteen now, it seems so far away now. That simple time when he was just a kid looking down at a raven haired boy in a sandbox. He thinks about that day as he walks to his terminal, thinks about how Nico smiled up at him and how it’s been eleven years of loving Nico di Angelo. He thinks about how he’s doing this for them, so that someday they can come back together. Jason isn’t sure how, or even when, or why, but he knows that somehow, the universe knows Jason is meant to love Nico di Angelo for the rest of his life. He cries while he sits and waits for the flight to Chicago. No one asks him about it. He looks down at his phone, vibrating with Nico’s number on the screen. He thinks about how maybe he was doing the wrong thing, but he thinks about Nico, doing what he loves, and living in Italy and seeing his mother’s grave and he thinks about Nico in maybe eight years, how happy he’ll be.

He cries and when he gets off the plane he wipes his eyes. He arrives in Chicago and the bus to take him to his school is there, but he’s looking at a different skyline, a new city with new smells, and he can’t help but wish he was back in New York City. But Chicago is nice. It’ll have to do.

He walks to his classes and he eats and he sleeps. He does what he's always done back home before he went to Chicago. One thing Jason never took into account? Alcohol. He enters his dorm and within the first week he's at Loyola he drinks. Heavily. He blacks out at one point but he remembers kissing a dark haired boy and calling him Nico and he feels worse for it.

At the end of his drinking binge he wakes up in his bed next to a ginger haired girl. She silently gets up and he never sees her for the eight years he's in school, but he thinks about her slender figure, soft hands, all the features completely juxtaposing the frame Nico inhabits. He decides he'll just stick to women until it blows over. 

It never blows over. On one memorable night it's been three years and he's sleeping next to a girlfriend called Jill. He picks up a book to read but when he picks it up off his messy apartment floor a photo falls out. The photo is of Nico and Jason at a fall festival. They're laughing in the photo with arms wound around each other. Jason knows this was the fall before he left for Loyola. He feels his eyes water and something breaks and he runs to the bathroom and he begins to cry. He cries hard. He pulls out his phone and considers dialing the phone, knowing that Nico hates change so much he'd never change his number. His hand hovers and falls to his side. He sobs even more and when Jill wakes up and finds him there he says he has a stomach bug.

They're over by the end of the week.

He begins to have a reputation as the boy who breaks hearts, sometimes he wishes he could help the people he's hurt, but he figures that maybe one day they'll move one. He sure as hell hasn't.

 

* * *

Nico calls Jason a total of ten times before he knows that Jason is officially gone. 

He'd gone to the airport, tried to find a way to get to Jason, but Jason ignored him and he shut him out. Nico wasn't sure what to do after that. He went home and when Hazel gave him a hopeful and excited look and saw his eyes she gave him a hug. He collapsed into her, but her weight and warmth kept him together.

 

Nico decides against Italy with his father. 

Instead on a whim he goes to college to become a teacher. He wants to teach kids, realizes his sophomore year of college that he really loves them. He thinks about Jason and how they were just seven when they met, out on a playground where the only things they know are the blue sky and their own smiles. He wants to help children grow, wants to show two boys how to love each other just like he knows he'll always love Jason.

It begins to hurt less. 

 

Some days when Nico decides to get shitfaced drunk and go to parties he remembers Jason. At the end of every night he'll look at his phone, look down at the number of the only love he's ever known in his life, and he'll think about whether or not Jason will answer. 

It's on a night like this that he meets her.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

She's standing a few feet away but she'd leaning against the wall of the club like she'd rather be anywhere but there. She has on a dress and heels but she looks like if it were a dress or battle armor she'd right in no matter what.

"Sorry?" He mumbles in a drunken slur.

She looks down at the phone. "I know what you're about to do, and I don't think you should."

Nico scoffs. "What do you know?"

She looks him up and down and even with how drunk he is, he still shifts under her focused gaze. Her brown eyes are determined and sharp and he feels like prey.

When she finally speaks it's with a clarity and conviction Nico only ever saw in Jason. "I know that you're doing this because of some emotionally distressing situation. I'd say break up. I'd say it was ended by the other person, otherwise you'd be in much better shape. I know that it happened a long time ago but you still think about it and you're thinking of calling their number right now while you're drunk. I'd vote against that. You'll definitely regret that in the morning."

Nico looks at her. "How did you know?"

She shrugs. "Some people, no matter how much older they get, can't get out of their old ways. And lots of people have similar patterns."

Nico nods. "You're right. It happened two years ago. I should move on."

She looks at him for a long time, not saying anything, until she pushes herself away from the wall. "Come on, let's get you home."

They've walked for a few blocks back to his apartment and when they finally arrive they sit on the steps.

"He was," Nico begins softly, the cold air in December sobering him, "was so beautiful. He still is, I think. I haven't seen him, but his sister says he looks just the same."

"How long were you together?" She asks softly.

He laughs bitterly. "It felt like forever. For ages. Four years romantically. Eleven all together, well, before he left."

"What do you miss most about him?" She pushes.

Any other given day that might throw Nico for a loop. He hadn't really thoughts about Jason that way for a long time. He'd been so sad and so lonely for so long that he forgot what it felt like to have Jason make him happy. He thinks about the singing Jason used to do when he was sure no one was listening and how Nico always listened. 

He thought about the jars on his shelves in his room. 

He chuckles but it's sad. "I was about ten when my sister died. I felt horrible about it, but he made me these jars full of paper stars, each one different. I've only ever opened one. It said I was the best friend he ever had. I miss that the most. Being the best friend he ever had."

It was the first time in over a year he'd talked about Jason. He didn't even cry.

She looked at him and gave him a small smile. "I think maybe one day you're going to understand that you'll be okay. There will be days when it weighs heavy, but for now, enjoy being okay."

She gets up and before she walks away she smiles down at him and gives him a business card. "I'm Reyna by the way. Don't be a stranger."

She's the best thing that's ever happened to Nico since Jason.

* * *

 

Jason talks to Thalia every week about twice a week. He talks to Percy and Annabeth about four times a week. They tell him about how they finished college a year early and how Annabeth is pregnant. He promises to come to the baby shower, which is scheduled for the day after Jason passes his Bar exam.

He visits New York City once on a week long break. He doesn't tell anyone, and it's about six months before the baby shower and he's gone back to look at his old life. He arrives, goes to his hotel, makes his way around Brooklyn. He passes the graveyard where Bianca is buried and he pays his respects. He leaves a single rose on her stone and it's placed right next to a fresh rose and he wonders how long it's been since Nico's been to see her. He walks past the elementary school he and Nico grew up together in. He walks passed the high school. He thinks about how much it hurts, seeing the place he left behind. He hid behind a mask just to have the career he wanted. He feels like something's stifled him, strangled him, and smothered the part of him he used to love most. He thinks about how back in Chicago no one knows he's bisexual, how he's lied about a part of himself for the better part of a decade. 

He remembers the way he ran down the steps of the high school the first day of summer in their freshman year, Nico in tow, and they spent the whole day at Coney Island, having the time of their lives. Sure Nico had been surly and standoffish, but Jason knew that when he gave small smiles it meant he was having the time of his life. That memory is tainted with a gray sadness Jason wishes he could take back with every part of him. He can't. And he just walks away from the school, tears in his eyes. He sits on a park bench a few blocks away and begins to cry without reserve. 

He goes by Nico's old apartment against his better judgment but as he walks up the stairs Mr. di Angelo is coming out and they both stop in their tracks. 

"Oh, I-uh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"What are you doing here?" His father asks, not in a demanding tone, but like a man who is impassive and uninterested. 

"I'm in town for a bit, I thought I might. . . I don't know what I thought. I'm sorry, please don't tell Nico about this."

Jason is running away almost immediately, tripping down the stairs. His feet are barely hitting the last step when he hears Nico's father behind him. 

"It broke his heart, you know."

Jason freezes and turns. "What?"

Mr. di Angelo walks down the stairs and he looks at Jason with a sadness Jason only ever saw at Bianca's funeral. "What you did. It broke his heart, I think. He's so much like his mother, feels things so deeply. This hurt him. I thought that perhaps after Percy things would be okay. You proved that wrong, Jason Grace."

Jason shuts his eyes and tries not to feel the sting of Nico's father's words. "Don't say that. I did this for him. I did this so I could come back and we could start over."

Mr. di Angelo sighs. "And what if my son has no interest in starting over? You've thrown away an entirely good life, Jason Grace."

"I know."

* * *

 

"And Will and I went to a school, they offered me a job, but I'm looking at options first. I think I might end up going with them. They're very nice there."

Nico is talking as they eat their weekly dinner. Hayden looks at him. He is looking at Nico with a look that Nico couldn't quite read. 

"What?" He asks his father. 

His father shakes his head. "Nothing. So, you are happy right now, yes?"

Nico thought about what that meant, about the past few years. He still thinks about Jason from time to time, will maybe always love him, but he thinks about how Reyna helps him understand that he can move on. She's been with him for more than five years. He loves her support. 

He smiles at his dad. "Yeah I am. I think I'm going to me. Why?"

His father looks at him and Nico knows he wants to say something. He looks conflicted for a moment, before he just gives Nico one of their private smiles and looks down at his dinner again.

"Nothing. I'm just glad you're happy."

* * *

 

Jason passes the Bar exam, which Thalia says is no big shock. And he’s nearly vibrating by the time he arrives to JFK airport the day before Annabeth’s baby shower. Just like he ran away after his high school graduation, he's running back home.

Annabeth, Percy, Thalia, Piper, and Leo are all waiting for him. He smiles at them. They're all older, somehow different yet still the same and Jason loves them, hasn't realized how much he's missed them until he sees them in flesh and blood.

“Jason!” They all cheer.

He hugs them each individually and then turns to Annabeth finally to see her stomach is bulging. His eyes widen and he smiles even wider.

“God, your child is huge!”

Annabeth chuckles tiredly. “Tell me about it.”

Thalia pulls him in by wrapping an arm around his shoulder. “Time to go home! I am having all of your stuff shipped from Loyola today!”

Jason laughs and sighs as they walk to the parking lot. “I just bought the office today. Let’s cool it.”

Piper smiles at him as they pile into Annabeth’s van. “It’s not everyday one of our friends opens his own law firm.”

They’re silent for a while as they drive into the city. When Jason is looking at the skyline and he smells the smog he’s reminded.

He turns to Percy, who is driving. “Hey, how is Nico doing?”

Everyone looks at one another tentatively. Even Annabeth is suspiciously silent.

“About that. . .” Leo starts.

“What?” Jason asks.

“Nico. . .” Percy starts carefully.

“Nico said he didn’t want to see you.” Thalia blurts out. Everyone looks at her harshly but she only shakes her head.

“What? Someone’s got to tell him, and since none of you can get a damn thing out. . .”

She trails off but Jason’s heart is sinking. He thinks about the photo of Nico he’s kept all these years, right in his back pocket.

“He. . . He, uh, he didn’t want to see me?”

* * *

"But don't you at least want an explanation?" Annabeth presses him.

Nico shakes his head and organizes the papers on his desk. They're all cards from his students, they're cute and he saves them, but he currently has a messy pile of homework and art on his desk. Annabeth is standing over his desk and her determined gaze is set off by the fact she is standing in a bright yellow first grade classroom. 

"No, I don't. I'm trying to move on from that. We were just kids back then, and you all need to stop trying to push this."

Annabeth sighs and forces him to look at her. 

"Nico, you and I both know you haven't moved on. You love him, everyone can see it. Sure it hurts less now, but you can't just keep denying what you know to be true."

Nico won't shake. "I'm not going, Annabeth. And that's final."

She looks at him sadly. "I know why you won't go."

And he has to look away, because he knows she does. He knows that she somehow pieced together what happened from eight years of silences and heartbroken stares and his inability to hold a relationship. 

"You're scared. You're scared he'll come back and do it all over again."

Nico looks at her with eyes she's always understood too well. "Am I stupid for that?"

Annabeth gives him a sad smile and walks around his desk to give him a hug. He used to hate hugs. "I think," she whispers, "that you'd be stupid if you weren't."

* * *

 

The baby shower is held in Annabeth and Percy’s three bedroom apartment in Manhattan and he sees everyone there. The years have been long but they’ve been good to everyone. He sees Travis and Connor Stoll, who Percy mentioned meeting in college. He sees Thalia again and after having been so busy with late night study sessions and early test cramming he’d been unable to call her on Skype for the last year. She looks good, just like she did the year before except her hair is long enough that she has it in a braid now.

He’s scanning the crowd when Reyna saddles up next to him.

“He’s not coming. Or maybe he is. He hasn’t decided.”

Jason looks at her and swallows nervously. “W-who are you talking about?”

She looks at him for a moment. “A lot of people have said you’re a very smart man. No need to play dumb.”

This must be Reyna.

Jason’s never met her, but after he left he asked Percy to keep tabs on Nico and he learned about this girl. She’s twenty-seven, a year older than he and Nico are, and she met Nico his Sophomore year of college. She’s brilliant, a fellow lawyer, something, Percy speculated, that had to do with Nico’s decision to be her friend. She’s as smart as a whip, trained in three martial arts, and she’s been dating Piper for the last seven months. She’s also the only one besides Thalia, that knows what happened between Nico and Jason. She’s the scariest person in the room.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He denies.

She smirks but she looks bored, not amused. “Spoken like a true lawyer.”

They say nothing until Reyna sighs and turns to him.

“Listen, I’ll make this fast, because I don’t want to make a scene, and I’m certainly a no-bullshit type of person. So, you stay away from him and make everyone’s job easier.”

“I won’t promise that.” He says, holding his stance.

She shakes her head and leans in. “Yes you will. Because you’ve hurt him once, and I know he can hold his own, god I have been a testament to it on many more nights than you have, but god help him he loves you. Even after the hell you put him through. He loves you, for whatever god forsaken reason, after eight years. But I don’t trust you, Jason Grace. So do what you’re good at and keep your distance.”

That last part burns, it’s delivered with the type of scathing Jason’s used on lots of lawyers in the past. This woman intends to bury him if he goes any farther.  And maybe she’s right. It’s been eight years, and maybe Jason should move on and forget about the boy he left alone to become a man.

He just nods and watches her strut away like the cat who got the canary.

* * *

"Oh my god, Reyna, I told you not to say anything!" He nearly shouts at her as they walk home from her law firm.

She chuckles to herself. "You didn't see him. It was like he was practically holding a blinking sign with the words 'Nico di Angelo. I'm only here for Nico di Angelo.' It was both sad and a bit pathetic."

Nico scowls. "He's not pathetic."

Reyna rolls her eyes. "No need to get defensive. Though I'm glad you're willing to defend a man you barely know."

Nico thinks about how that stings more than it should. She'd technically right. He knows nothing about the new Jason. This Jason could like to have alcohol for breakfast and hate books or he could ate eggs with ketchup and refuse to tip waiters. He could be so different from the eighteen year old boy he used to know. 

Nico shakes his head in an attempt to shake thoughts of Jason out of his mind. He still remembers the color of Jason's eyes.

"I guess you're right."

* * *

 

It turns out that he doesn’t have to worry about keeping his distance, because Nico comes to him.

“Hi. I’m looking for Jason Grace?” He asks one day.

Jason is in his little dingy office but Piper, who appointed herself his assistant because “really Jason who else will take a payroll that little”, is the first to see Nico.

She looks at him for a moment then casts a glance at Jason, who is still with his head in the records he’s writing. She walks up to Nico and whispers.

“You don’t have to do this, Nico.”

He shakes his head and sighs before he lets out a breath. “It’s fine.”

It's the complete opposite with the way his heart is trying to crush his lungs but he has to convince himself he is.

She leads him to the doorway of Jason’s shoebox office. “Someone to see you, Jason.”

Jason doesn’t look up. “Who is it? Is it a potential client? Have they already signed our agreement forms?”

Nico clears his throat. “Uhm, not exactly.”

Jason’s heard that voice in his dreams and he snaps his head up. “Oh. . . I-uh. . . It’s you.”

Nico nods. “It’s me.”

Jason looks different now. He's taller, more muscular. That part Nico definitely acknowledges. His hair is a bit longer, long enough to be combed to the side and he wears glasses now. He looks so handsome Nico nearly sobs, remembering every inch of him that's still the same, like the scar on his lip that he got from trying to eat a stapler when he was a baby, before he met Nico. 

Jason and Nico don't look away from each other. 

Piper rolls her eyes. “And this is me. . . _leaving._ ”

Nico and Jason don’t look away from each other to acknowledge that she even spoke and Piper sighs. “Whatever. I’ll be in the other room.”

Once the door slams shut Jason immediately stands. “Oh, uh, please sit down.”

Nico shakes his head. “I won’t be long. I just wanted to say I’m sorry for whatever Reyna said the other day. She can be a bit protective.”

_Do what you do best and keep your distance._

Jason chuckles humorlessly. “It’s not like I didn’t deserve it.”

Nico sighs and Jason looks at him, really looks at him. He’s impossibly tall now, most likely taller than Jason if they stood next to each other. Jason remembers a time when he used to tower over Nico, but that time has past. Jason also remembers the time when Nico used to have an undercut in high school. But his hair’s grown out and he keeps what he can tied back in a ponytail at the base of his neck. The rest is still as curly as he remembers it and Jason wishes he could brush away the fly aways like he used to.

“What happened between you and I is between us. I don’t need my friends defending me or fighting battles for me. Plus, you don’t deserve what she did. She trampled you with words.”

Jason chuckles again, with the same amount of bitter derision in his laugh. “I’m a lawyer. I’m used to it.”

Nico says nothing and they stare for a moment. Jason looks at Nico and he remembers that time on the sandbox. The sun beating down on them and all little Nico di Angelo had wanted was a friend. Jason Grace, only seven, wants the same. That was twenty one years ago. Twenty one years of history between two people, things they can’t forget. Jason doesn’t want to forget what he’s done to be with Nico.

Nico just nods and turns away. Jason is out from behind his desk and gripping Nico’s wrist before he knows what he’s doing and Nico turns around in shock.

“Did you- did you ever become that business leader like you wanted?” Jason asks on the fly.

Nico smiles sadly at him. “No. I became a first grade teacher.”

Jason thinks about little seven year olds all crowding Nico, happy to be there with him. He thinks of two little boys, just like they were, that will love each other with childhood vivacity and he smiles despite himself.

“It seems like that would suit you.”

Nico pulls away from him too soon and Jason is left with a lingering sadness. “Yeah.”

He’s reaching for the doorknob and Jason is desperate to say anything to make him stay this time around.

“I miss you.” He says quickly, his heart pounding.

Nico’s turned away from him but his hand hovers over the doorknob. He drops it to his side. He's silent for a moment and he lets out a soft sigh. He thinks about how much he wanted to hear that the first year. How hard it was to look at everything and not see Jason in everything. He thinks about the second year and how if Jason had called he'd be right back where he was before. He thinks about last year and how he remembers not having thought about Jason for an entire month. It all would have been so different if Jason had told him that in all the chances he's had to.

“Y-you don’t get to say those things anymore.” Nico says softly, his voice cracks.

Jason nods his head. “I know. I know I lost that right when I left, but I had to. I had to-”

“You had to?!” Nico whirls around. His eyes are spilling with tears and his eyes are angry. He is angry. He's angry that he knows Jason did this to protect him, but Nico could protect himself and he always hoped Jason would understand that.

“You had to leave without another word ever again? You had to miss all my texts and phone calls and messages and letters? You _had_ to?” Nico bites out. Nico forgets about the letters. He regrets them as much everything else but they're a testament to a time Nico wants to forget.

Jason sighs and his eyes burn. “I couldn’t afford law school any other way. And you were going to Italy. I had to do it or the distance would have torn us apart.”

“Who gave you the right to make that decision for me?” Nico asks, angrily.

Jason runs his hand through his hair. “I just. . . I wanted to protect you.”

Nico glares at him now, tear streaks running down his face and Jason knows the only thing Nico has ever needed protecting from these past eight years is him.

“You did a terrible job at it,” he swings open the door to Jason’s office and before he's gone he turns, “thanks for nothing.”

And he slams the door to the office on his way out.

Piper sighs and looks at Jason, who is standing in his doorway. “Okay, so that went about as good as expected.”

* * *

Nico is sitting at his desk when one of the boys in his classroom comes up to him. The boy is quiet, reserved, and he spends lunches with Nico. Nico is glad he finds a place he's comfortable in, and Nico has company. 

"Mr. di Angelo?" the boy asks quietly.

Nico looks up and gives him a soft smile. "Yes?"

The boy seems to hold something back but he speaks anyway. 

"You seem different. Are you sad, Mr. di Angelo? My momma says sometimes adults get real sad."

Nico sighs and tries his best to give the boy a reassuring smile. "I'll be okay, James. I'll be okay."

* * *

“I fucked up.” Jason says as he flops down on Annabeth and Percy’s couch.

Annabeth sighs. “We heard. All of our friends now have a fully descriptive narrative about how you messed up your first meeting with Nico in eight years.”

Jason puts his head in his hands and Percy pats him on the back comfortingly. “Don’t worry. You had to have that conversation some time soon.”

“Yeah.” Jason just mutters.

“What even happened?” Annabeth asks carefully.

Jason looks at her. “Nico didn’t tell you?”

Annabeth and Percy looked at each other before Percy sighed loudly. “Nico didn’t say much of anything after you left, to be quite honest.”

Jason settles back into his seat and thinks about Nico, likes he thought for the last eight years, but he thinks about a kid, just fresh out of high school, left with a hole in his heart and he can’t help but fill up that image with himself.

 

He shows up to Nico’s apartment with flowers.

A blond guy answers the door.

“Hi! You must be Jason.” The blond says cheerily.

Jason takes a step back. “Sorry, I-I think I have the wrong apartment.”

“Will! Who’s there? I told you not to answer my door unless-” Jason hears Nico say.

Nico stops when he sees Jason standing in the doorway. He says nothing as he slams the door on Will so that they’re alone in the hallway. Jason’s right that Nico is impossibly tall.

“What are you doing here?” Nico asks, not coldly, not like he’s hurt. He has the impassive face any other person would write off. But Jason’s known Nico since they were seven. He knows that Nico is curious, wary, and still hurt by old wounds that may never heal.

“I came to apologize for last week. I came with flowers but then I saw your boyfriend and-”

“Will’s not my boyfriend.” Nico says quickly.

Nico sighs and crosses his arms. “He used to be, but he’s just my roommate.”

Jason is severely relieved. “Well I just came here to say I’m sorry. For the fight and just. . . for everything. I’m so sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. It was your choice to do what you did and it’s over now.”

Nico is opening his door but Jason stops him again, unable to leave this alone. This feeling that he’s always meant to be with Nico.

“But what if it’s not?” Jason calls to him.

Nico turns around. “What?”

Jason looks everywhere but Nico’s face and he’s reminded of the time he’d confessed his love to Nico when he was fourteen.

“I messed up. Colossally. I messed up so bad and you don’t deserve to even say yes. But I did miss you. And I do love you, that never went away. And I’d like to make up the last eight years to you. I just want to fix what I broke.”

Nico shakes his head. “No. No. We’ve gone through this before. We’ve done this all before.”

Jason sighs and hands him the flowers. “You don’t have to say yes. I just want you to know that when I left you behind, it didn’t just hurt you. It hurt me too. And I’m willing to do anything to make it right.”

They stand like that for a moment, staring at each other, Will poking his head out to see them in the hallway and after what feels like an eternity Nico sighs.

“I’ll call you.”

He shuts the door, taking the flowers with him. And Jason does a happy dance. He forgets to move out of the way and when Nico looks through his peephole he sees Jason doing a dance of victory.

 


	49. I'm Going to Stand By You, Even If We Can't Find Heaven I'll Walk Through Hell With You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guess who is garbage and has been exhausted and unable to write for the last month???  
> THIS GIRL  
> Anywho, sorry for the unannounced hiatus guys! I am going to try and update again and soon!

 

 

**_And, love, if your wings are broken_ **  
**_Borrow mine 'til yours can open, too_ **  
**_'Cause I'm gonna stand by you_ **

**_Even if we're breaking down, we can find a way to break through_ **  
**_Even if we can't find heaven, I'll walk through Hell with you_ **  
**_Love, you're not alone, 'cause I'm gonna stand by you_ **

**_And truth, I guess truth is what you believe in._ **

 

* * *

 

_**Prompt** : write a fic based off of "you're my favorite book character, but you're in my living room trying to tell me I'm your favorite book character and you want to save me from the end of the story."_

 

 

Nico’s never been one for shitty YA novels. They’re recycled, they’re overdone, they have heteronormative undertones, the list of the ways YA novels are terrible could go on. There are a lot of reasons why Nico despises YA novels. But there is just something about the Demigod Chronicles that he cannot stop reading it. The novelist has released seven books, all of which Nico pre-ordered the moment it was announced. Not just that, but Nico can appreciate the novels. They have an ambiguously bisexual supporting main character and maybe just the way Piper, the main character, is in love him, so is Nico. He is a blond caricature of all that’s good and in some indie novel about growing up in a fantastical world, Nico finds him to be the best part of the book.

The problem with the books was that Nico had found those books the year after Bianca died. And when Nico had no one he’d turned to Jason Grace. Jason Grace, who, with the help of his demigod friends, had defeated Gaea and become the hero of Olympus, infallible in his worthiness but fallible in his want for something more than the life he’d been given. Nico understood that feeling, connected with it in a way he hadn’t really understood at the time. Or maybe he did, and he’d just wanted Bianca back. But still, he loves Jason Grace as though he’s the knight of his dreams, the ideal person Nico could imagine himself falling in love with one day. There were moments where Nico felt unclean, unnatural in his love for people of the same sex, but Jason Grace owned it, wore his bisexuality like the badge of honor it was. Perhaps Nico was in love with the pride Jason Grace has for himself.

It had gotten to a point where Nico prefers reading about Jason rather than going on dates. It seems that no matter how hard he tries these days Nico can’t help but compare the men he’s seen with the example of Jason Grace. It’s ridiculous, to compare people to a fictional character. But Nico is searching for his own Jason Grace and he hasn’t found him yet. Reyna, Will, and Hazel are worried, but Nico prefers to ignore it. Jason Grace is the epitome of Nico’s sexual awakening and something about him is much more enticing in a world of fiction than in Nico’s own life.

He’s reading the Gladiator’s Promise when it happens and maybe he wished a little too hard.

_  
_

Jason hates being a demigod. He’s tired, he’s frustrated, and since Percy and Annabeth left to New Rome he can’t handle the fact that he’s left with a very lonesome feeling and a lot of work. He was on his way to Percy’s mom’s apartment when he spotted a book in the window of a small bookstore. The cover is simple, an aesthetic photo taken of a black-haired boy.

“That’s one of our best sellers.” The weathered elderly lady at the front counter tells him when he comes in, still looking at it.

“What is it about?” He asks, which feels surreal. In New Rome there had always been something to do, some battle to fight, some war to wage, some dispute to settle, Jason never got a moment to breathe. But after the war, which had nearly been a disaster, Jason had built the shrines and everything had slowed considerably. Less monsters made it back from Tartarus. Before there had never been time to read books. But just like someone who wants what they can’t have, Jason used to imagine them. He used to think about how every book would be different, what he’d like, what he didn’t. Jason imagined he’d like something about everyday mortal life, no books about monsters anymore. He had enough monsters in his real life.

“Well, this is an LGBT+ friendly bookshop, son. All the books in here involve main characters who are queer.”

Jason picked up the book and ran his hand along the spine of the book. It felt like the vertabrae of a living thing, breathing and pulsing under his hands.

“What about this one?”

The elderly lady smiled. “It’s a coming-of-age indie novel about a gay character.”

Jason looked at her. “How much is it?”

She smiled at him. “Fifteen dollars.”

He put down the dollar bills on the counter and walked out with the book.

He sat on the stoop of Percy’s building, an hour early, and waiting for Annabeth and Percy to arrive. He nervously shifted, as though he’d never experienced the idea of something new like reading. It was something foreign, something mortals did. He opened the to the first page and just by the fifteenth page Jason had laughed so hard he’d cried. And when Nico di Angelo, described by his black hair and quick wit, had been expositioning about his life as a closeted gay man in Brooklyn Jason was so engrossed he noticed nothing else but Nico di Angelo and his image of the man. He was on the two hundredth page, reading about Bianca di Angelo, who died the year Nico turned ten. He learned about how Nico di Angelo loved Greek Mythology and was decidedly single because of his obsession with book characters. Jason was becoming fond of Nico when he heard something.

“Jason.” Percy cleared his throat.

Jason jumped and shut the book immediately.

“Oh, you’re here.”

Percy chuckled. “Yeah, this is my apartment. Ready to go?”

Jason nodded.

He summoned Tempest and his friend and Jason was glad that he had put the book away before they could ask any questions.

As they rode the winds Jason turned to Percy and Annabeth and shouted over the rushing winds.

“What are we going to do in New Rome?”

Annabeth, holding tight onto Percy, turned her head to him. “Frank says that a group of demigods need to be saved in Croatia, we need to go rescue them. We’re going to New Rome for a briefing.”

When they arrived they headed to the Senate House to find Frank was already waiting for them. He stood in his purple Praetor robes and he handed them each a sack.

“There’s going to be a trap set by Medea. She’s been seen resurfacing. Be careful out there.”

Jason looked at him, more formal, more assertive, still just as kind and soft, but he held himself like a true Roman, something Jason had always believed he was capable of.

Annabeth and Percy sighed.

“We have to go back to our apartment and see if Mrs. O’Leary is going to be okay.”

Frank nodded. Annabeth took off down the the streets of New Rome. Jason knew they had gotten a decently sized apartment after the war, and when Jason had heard the news he’d settled down with them. Piper hadn’t been ready, and when it became clear to both of them that the romance Hera had forced on them had been just that, Jason and Piper painlessly decided that maybe being friends was best. He got an apartment right above a cafe and he loved it, though it did get lonely sometimes.

Frank turned to him. “Please watch after them. And the demigods. There’s three of them.”

Jason nodded. “I promise. I will get them here at all costs.”

Someone called Frank away and Jason turned away, giving him a quick goodbye before he ran down the path to his apartment.

_  
_

He was unlocking the door when he heard a scream.

“Ah!”

He turned at the sound of the baritone yell and he was wielding his weapon before he could even register who was there.

“Whoa!” A black haired boy yelled.

Jason frowned. “Who are you?!”

The boy spun around quickly and his eyes widened when they landed on the gladius in Jason’s hand.

“Where am I?!”

Jason looked at him for a moment, focused very hard to see through the Mist, to see if this young man was anything other than human. Or demigod.

Jason lowered the weapon. “New Rome. In California. Who are you?”

The dark haired boy frowns and something about him seems vaguely familiar to Jason. He looked around for a moment before his eyes widened in horror.

“Oh no.”

Jason frowned. “What?”

The boy shook his head fast and began to pace. “I’m dreaming. I have to be dreaming. I have to be. Goddammit, I need to wake up.”

Jason frowned. “Who are you exactly?”

The dark haired boy sighed and looks panicked. “I’m Nico di Angelo. And you’re Jason Grace.”

Jason took a step back and raised his weapon once more. This can’t be who he thinks it is. “How do you know that?”

Nico sighed. “Because you’re the main character of my favorite book.”

_  
_

So, that happened.

Jason was not sure at all how to process what he was told. But he lived in an age of dragons, demigods, and gods, so maybe being the main character of a book he’s never heard or seen is perhaps not the strangest thing to happen to him. Stranger things have happened, like Leo coming back from the dead.

“What?” Is all he can really say.

He’d say later it was because of shock, but mostly because even with a gladius wielded at Nico di Angelo, Nico di Angelo, fictional as he may be in Jason’s world, is kind of. . . beautiful? He’s got an undercut Jason would never have the courage to give himself, his clothes cling to him as though they’re a second skin but also one size too big, and he has pale skin like alabaster that Jason can’t stop looking at. One thing the book never got right was his eyes. Eyes nearly black, but so enticing Jason can’t look away from them.

And okay maybe Nico is fulfilling his lifelong dream since he was ten to see what Jason Grace would look like in the flesh and every one of his prepubescent fantasies was correct. Jason Grace looks like a disheveled Captain America with glasses. Nico and Bianca loved Captain America.

“It’s you.” He said, because he’s still in shock. He’s gotten into this book and he’s not sure how it happened.

Jason put away his gladius and looked at Nico. “Who exactly am I?”

Nico felt his heart begin to pound faster than he’d imagine now that Jason Grace, Jason freaking Grace who Nico had never seen before in his life, had imagined for the past nine years, is real.

“You’re my favorite character.”

Jason sighed and sat down. “Yeah, you mentioned that. How did you get into my apartment? And what did you mean about me being part of a book?”

Nico remembered suddenly why he must be here. “Yeah! I just don’t know how I got here. But yes, in my world you’re a character in a book.”

Jason was not familiar with very many books, having only read his first this afternoon. “I can’t believe this.”

Nico shook his head and sat down across from Jason. “I need to get back. I have to get back. Hazel and Will are going to wonder where I went.”

Jason looked at Nico di Angelo, still very unsure if he was actually there. It seemed too good to be true. “Your sister and your best friend, right?”

Nico’s eyebrows furrowed. “How did you know that?”

Jason took the book out of his bag. “Because in my world you’re a character in a book.”

Nico took the book from his hands and examined. Whole pages about Bianca, whole chapters even, things he’d thought but never said to anyone.

Nico’s throat closed. “That. . . That means you know about. . .”

“Bianca, yes.” Jason said softly.

Nico’s grip on the book tightened. “I’m here for a reason. You have to stay away from this quest.”

Jason frowned. “What quest?”

Nico looked around the apartment. “The one you’re going to go on in a couple of hours.”

“Why?”

Jason’s frown deepened. “Why?”

Nico looked at him sadly. “Because if you go on this quest, you’re going to die.”

_  
_

So doom and gloom are a part of being a demigod. Jason learned that when he was raised by Lupa, the she-wolf. You don’t get raised by wolves and come out of it unscathed. Being told he was going to possibly die is not a problem Jason has. It’s that, in that moment, Nico looked so sincerely worried, so concerned and distraught Jason had to wonder what had happened to him if he’d chosen to go.

“What do you mean I’m going to die?”

Nico sighed. “I figured that part was kind of self explanatory.”

Jason sighed. “I mean, how does it happen?”

Nico looked at him sadly. “You die from an ambush. You do it to save Annabeth and Percy.”

Jason’s heart constricted. “I have to go.”

Despite his usual inclination to not let anyone know much more than he let on, a trait he’d learned after Bianca, Nico jumped to his feet.

“No! You can’t.”

Jason looked at him. “I have to. I have to help them. Percy and Annabeth have been through enough.”

“Let me come with you.” Nico blurted.

Jason stood and looked at him. “What?”

Nico shifted and looked around the apartment at the photos on the wall, ones with Piper and Leo and ones with Thalia. Nico didn’t need to be told who they were, he already knew them all by heart. They all looked so happy to be in those photos. Nico thought about how, impossibly, in this fictional world, there would be people who missed him.

“You can’t die. It’s not your destiny to die here. Well, I mean, it’s written, but I don’t think this should end here. If I go with you, I can help you.”

Jason sighed and began to pack. “You’re a mortal, I don’t know what you’re capable of, but if what you’re saying to me is true, I can’t let you die.”

He couldn’t ask Nico do this for him. He knew what happened in that book, Nico had been through enough.

“No.”

“But I can help you!” Nico argued.

Jason hefted his bag onto his shoulder. “Nico, you have to go back to your own world. You cannot die in this world.”

Nico wanted to argue with him, but also wanted to kiss him, a weird inclination brought on by Nico’s awareness that Jason always thought of others before himself.

Nico stood firmly in front of him. “I’m going with you.”

There was a knock at Jason’s apartment door and Jason sighed before he turned to Nico. “You know fencing don’t you?”

Nico looked at him cautiously. “How did you know that?”

Jason just shrugged. “The book.”

He handed Nico a black sword. Nico knew this sword, the Stygian Iron blade.

“Jason! Are you in there?” Percy called.

Jason nodded at Nico. “Follow my lead. Just, please, be careful.”

Nico looked at him. “I’m not the one who dies in this universe.”

Jason thought about the uncertainty of Nico’s own story. “Just, please.”

Nico nodded solemnly and Jason swung open the door.

Nico looked at Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, childhood heroes of his, ones he’d never fully moved on from. Percy turned to Nico.

“Who is this?” He asked.

Jason waved between them. “Nico di Angelo, legacy of a demigod of Venus, this is Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, and Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon.”

Annabeth waved at him and gave him a kind look. “Nice to meet you, Nico.”

Percy looked at Jason. “What was he doing in your apartment, the only person you usually ever let into your apartment is Piper.”

Annabeth and Percy gave Nico a meaningful look and Jason sighed. “That’s not what this is. Let’s go. Nico’s going to help us.”

Jason pulled Nico with him and they brushed past Percy and Annabeth.

Percy grinned conspiratorially at her.

_  
_

They were somewhere in the grasslands of the Midwest at a campfire when Jason and Nico got time to talk alone again. Percy and Annabeth were walking a few yards away, talking on the phone with Percy’s mom.

It was turning to twilight when Jason spoke up.

“In the book, am I good?” He asked quietly.

Nico looked at him. “What do you mean?”

Jason sighed and looked at the fire. “I don’t know, am I on the right side of whatever this is? Am I doing the right thing?”

Nico looked at him from where he sat next to him. He turned to the fire.

“I wouldn’t be able to answer that.”

Jason’s shoulders slumped and Nico continued. “I think that despite a lot of your doubts that you’ll end up like your father, you are making the right choices. And I think that you know you are, you don’t need some book telling you that either.”

Jason stilled.

“How did you know about that?”

Nico looked at him again. “What? About your dad? It’s not that hard. I’ve been reading about you since I was ten. I know all about disappointing fathers.”

Jason thought about Nico’s father, who had shipped him off to New York City to live with his sister and when she’d died he left him there, in lonesome apartments with a continuous check and no one to help him mourn the loss of his sister. A little boy forced to grow up too fast.

“I know.”

Nico looked at him.

“What about me?”

Jason looked at him. “What?”

Nico shrugged. “You mentioned I was in a book. What do I do in the book?”

Jason shrugged as well. “Nothing really. The book is just about your life.”

Nico nodded and he opened his mouth to speak but just then Annabeth and Percy walked back to the campfire they’d set up.

“Mom says hi.” Percy said.

They sat all around the fire in silence.

_  
_

They were running. Fast and their sneakers were slamming the pavement hard as they pulled the children along.

“Come on!” Percy yelled as he pulled the young boy and girl.

The boy was crying but the girl pulled him with Percy. The monsters were chasing them.

Annabeth turned to Nico and Jason. “We’re never going to ditch them!”

The girl and boy panted. Nico could tell they were becoming more tired by the minute. Jason turned and saw the wild despair in their eyes. He paused.

“Go!”

Percy and Annabeth turned to him quickly. “What?”

They heard the roar of the beast a few meters away.

Jason stood his ground like he’d done when he’s toppled the throne of a titan and he would do it again.

“Go! I’ll stall it!”

Annabeth pulled Nico with her, but he wretched himself free.

“I’m staying with Jason.”

Jason’s heart skipped a beat and Annabeth sighed. “Nico. we have to keep you safe.”

Jason nodded. “We do.”

Nico ran back to Jason’s side without another word to either of them and when Percy heard the roaring, closer now, he’d pulled the children and Annabeth along.

“Please be safe.” Annabeth pleaded as Percy took them as far away as possible. Jason turned to Nico.

“That wasn’t a smart idea, following me.”

Nico looked at him. “I’ve been following you since I was ten. I’m not going to stop now.”

Jason turned to see the beast roaring and preparing to charge at them in the clearing. Nico held his sword like he’d been doing it his entire life. It was the most inconvenient time for Jason to fall in love.

_  
_

Jason was limping and being pulled by Nico up the hill to Camp Half-Blood.

“You’re an idiot, Jason Grace.”

Jason chuckled and his split lip ached. “Someone had to save you.”

“You’ve been saving me since I was a kid.” Nico said. His tone was somber, but passionate.

Jason looked up at him, now shorter from being hunched over in pain. He smiled despite everything. “Yeah? Was it a good adventure?”

Nico took Jason to the top of Half-Blood Hill. A Place Nico had only ever seen in art and his dreams. The sky beat down rays onto the Long Island Sound and the cabins were a bit away, but he could the children of all ages running around. There was the wall of lava Nico had always imagined getting scorched by. He saw the campers in the sky, doing spirals on Pegasi. It was everything Nico had ever dreamed it would be.

“Yeah, yeah it was.”

Jason sighed. “Let’s just sit here for a minute.”

He was tired and weak and so was Nico, so they sat in the grass in silence.

After a moment Jason lay back and looked up at the clouds. “You did great back there.”

“Thanks.”

Jason looked at him. “You could stay here.”

Nico’s heart stopped. “What?”

Jason sighed and closed his eyes. “You could stay, here, at camp. Or even in New Rome.”

Nico had dreamed about this moment. Since he was ten he’d always dreamed of being transported to this world, the world where monsters lived, but so did heroes, and true love, and people like him, people who weren’t normal, no one would care. He’d dreamt about sitting on this very hill after a battle, just like that very moment, and have Jason Grace give him a kiss like they’d known each other for years. He’d spent so much time fantisizing about it he’d never thought it would happen, but here it was, the opportunity to have that. And yet. . .

And yet. . .

“I can’t.” Nico sighed.

Jason looked at him, and he explained.

“I have a sister, I have friends, and a life back in my world. And as much I would love to stay, this world isn’t mine.”

Jason knew he couldn’t stay, but looking at Nico, something made him want to ask him to stay once more. Nico di Angelo, fictional and fantastical, understood, and he was kind, and he was so many things Jason had never really understood. He was kind, but closed off, and even with all of those things Jason imagined Nico staying here in this world, forgetting Bianca and staying with Jason like he belonged here, like he was a true demigod. Jason wasn’t an idiot, he knew that was just his own projections and ideas, but the idea was tantalising.

“I understand, Nico. I’m just glad you got to see into my world for a bit. Thank you for saving me.” Jason told him sincerely.

“I think I love you.” Nico said suddenly.

Jason looked up from where he lay in the grass and the sun had created a halo around Nico, his hair brushed his eyes and neck and flowed with the soft breeze in the April winds. He looked down at Jason nervously.

Jason smiled at him earnestly. “Me too.”

Nico let out a sigh and he looked down at the grass by his feet. When he let out a gasp Jason sat up.

“What?”

Nico pointed to his feet where they were beginning to fade.

“I’m leaving!”

Jason frantically reached into his pocket and handed him a photo. In the photo Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Leo, and Jason were all smiling. They had on identical orange shirts and Nico knew about this photo. He’d read about it in the book. This was taken the summer after they defeated the Giants.

Jason smiled at him. “Take it. Know that wherever you are, in whatever universe you go back to, I’m going to think about you.”

Nico’s looked at him sadly. “I don’t want to go.”

Jason gave him a sad smile. “You have to. Maybe we’ll meet again, in your world or mine.”

Jason leaned in for a kiss and their lips brushed for a moment before all Jason held in his hands was the air.

Annabeth and Percy came running up the hill a few moments later.

“Jason! Where’s Nico?” Percy asked.

Jason looked at the sky sadly and reached for the book in his bag. “He had to go.”

_  
_

Nico woke up two days later and found that the only thing convincing him that it hadn’t been a dream was the photo of Jason Grace, hero of Olympus, in his hand, clutched tightly.

His phone rang loudly from his bedside drawer and he answered it immediately.

“Nico! Where have you been?! We’ve been trying to call you for the last day and a half!” Hazel said frantically.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly as he looked at Jason, smiling at him, frozen in time, “I was just busy.”

_  
_

Jason was running from a hellhound when he bumped into someone. It’d been three months since Nico had disappeared when he bumped into the mortal.

“Hey!” The young guy exclaimed.

Jason turned to mutter an apology before he ran off, but he paused.

It was Nico. Nico, in the flesh, again.

“Nico?” He said in a dazed tone, completely ignoring the beast that would be halfway from Times Square to where he was.

The guy sighed. “Yeah? Have we met before?”

Jason shook his head, different Nico, different time, but Jason couldn’t let him go. “You just, sorry, you remind me of someone I used to know.”

Nico nodded and Jason turned to him. “I’m Jason. Nice to meet you. Want to have coffee later?”

Nico seemed taken aback and he stuttered before he replied a bit flustered. “Sure, yeah, okay. When?”

Jason pointed to the coffee shop at the corner. “There. Maybe about three?”

Nico nodded. “Okay.”

Just then two blocks down Jason saw the hellhound charging down the busy streets. He smiled at Nico.

“Great, now if you don’t mind, I have to go!”

Jason took off down the street, memorizing the street as Nico waved at him as though he wasn’t sure what was happening.

****_  
_ ** **

Nico sighed as he read his comic book in the window of his spot at the university. He’d gone back to school, but after everything he’d experienced with Jason things in his world had seemed even more dull.

He was looking out the window of the building at the skyscrapers of New York City and wondered what Jason was doing at the moment.

Someone cleared their throat.

Nico sighed heavily. “What?”

“Sorry, but, uh, I just noticed you’re reading Daredevil.”

Nico knew that voice, had imagined it in his brain for the last three months. He turned slowly and in all his six foot glory Jason was smiling down at him behind glasses. He had a backpack slung over his shoulder.

“Jason?” Nico asked.

Jason blushed. “You know who I am?”

Nico scoffed. “Of course I know who you are.”

Jason turned, impossibly, more red and pushed his glasses up his nose. “Have we met before?”

Nico was about to respond automatically until he noticed the subtle differences, like the way Jason didn’t have that lip scar, or any of the other scars that the other Jason had. Nico felt thrilled and disappointed in equal measure.

“Sorry, no, we haven’t.”

Jason smiled at him nervously and looked at the floor. “Oh, well, uh, I kind of wanted to know if you’d like to get dinner sometime.”

This Jason was not the one Nico had fallen in love with, he knew that. He knew that he might never see that Jason ever again, but there was a chance to build something real, something tangible. Something that didn’t exist just on paper. Nico gave him a small smile.

“I’d like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao I hope everyone likes this I will try and make more of the gay ass shit


	50. Author's note

Hello everyone! Sorry for that long break I took! 

Well, anyway, the news I'm writing here is that I have decided to end the fanfic here! Well, not end, specifically, I will be making changes to my current stories and fixing them and just over all making this work shine better than before, but I will now be making stand alone fics! I also didn't feel right writing about Nico in a relationship that isn't with Will so I'm sorry to cut this short! Thank you so much for all your support throughout this experience and sticking with me through all my terrible typos!


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